Quick Look at the T.S. Eliot Contenders

In case you were looking for short reviews of the ten books shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, The London TimesOnline just released brief synopses…The shortlist includes the following:

The Sun-fish by Eiléan Ní Chuilleánain
Continental Shelf by Fred D'Aguiar
Over by Jane Draycott
The Water Table by Philip Gross
Through the Square Window by Sinéad Morrissey
One Secret Thing by Sharon Olds
Weeds & Wild Flowers by Alice Oswald
A Scattering by Christopher Reid
The Burning of the Books and Other Poems by George Szirtes
West End Final by Hugo Williams

Interesting mix of Brit, Irish, American writers including transplants from Budapest and Guyana. Only one American on the list—Sharon Olds. I was just a bit relieved to see that Mark Doty (a perennial favorite for this prize and who won in 1995 with his, I think, best book "My Alexandria") was not on the list.