Heaney wins TS Eliot poetry prize

Irish poet and Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney has been named winner of the TS Eliot Prize for Poetry, collecting a cheque for £10,000.

He won for his latest collection, District and Circle, which draws on his travels to work on the London Underground in his younger days.

The prize was presented by TS Eliot's widow, Valerie Eliot, at a ceremony in central London.

Heaney's work was described by the judges as "exhilarating".

"In an outstandingly strong field, this was an exceptional collection of poems," said chairman of the judges, Sean O'Brien.

Poets who made this year's shortlist included Simon Armitage, Penelope Shuttle, Hugo Williams and Paul Farley.

The TS Eliot Prize for Poetry is organised by the Poetry Book Society, which was founded by Eliot in 1953 to develop and maintain poetry reading in the UK.

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