Seamus Heaney shortlisted for TS Eliot poetry prize

Seamus Heaney was recently named winner of the Forward Prize for poetry

Seamus Heaney has been shortlisted for this year's TS Eliot Prize for his collection of poems called Human Chain.

The Nobel Prize winner recently won the Forward Prize for the same collection. He was also named the winner of the Eliot award in 2006.

The writer joins nine other shortlisted poets, including Annie Freud, Fiona Sampson, Derek Walcott and Simon Armitage.

The winner of the £15,000 prize will be announced on 24 January.

John Haynes, Pascale Petit, Robin Robertson, Brian Turner and Sam Willetts complete the shortlist.

Chair judge Anne Stevenson said: "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."

All 10 authors will take part in a poetry reading at London's Royal Festival Hall the night before the London awards ceremony.

The TS Eliot Prize is organised by the Poetry Book Society, which was founded by Eliot in 1953.

A panel of established poets determine the winner.

Last year Philip Gross was presented with the prize money for his collection The Water Table.