SEAMUS HEANEY SHORTLISTED FOR TS ELIOT POETRY PRIZE

The BBC reports that Nobel Prize-winner Heaney has been shortlisted for the TS Eliot for his collection of poems called Human Chain -- a collection that has already snared the Forward Prize.

Heaney is certainly consistent: he has won the TS Eliot Prize before, in 2006.

Chair judge Anne Stevenson said that the judges "have found this an exceptional year for poetry, with a record number of entries, and have agreed on a strong shortlist which is unusually eclectic in form and theme."

Others on the list are John Haynes, Pascale Petit, Robin Robertson, Brian Turner, Sam Willetts, Annie Freud, Fiona Sampson, Derek Walcott, and Simon Armitage.

All ten will take part in a poetry reading at London's Royal Festival Hall the night before the Awards ceremony, which will take place on 24 January 2011.  The prize is worth 15,000 pounds.