The Michael Marks Awards for Poetry Pamphlets are annual awards for pamphlets published in the UK. The awards aim to promote the pamphlet form and to enable poets and publishers to develop and continue creating. Since their inception, they have grown to include three annual awards, for "Poetry Pamphlet", "Publisher" and "Illustration", carrying prizes of up to ã5,000, and awarding places on "The Michael Marks Poets in Residence Program" in Greece. Additional awards have included the "Poetry Pamphlet in a Celtic Language" and, as of 2022, the Environmental Poet of the Year prize.
The awards were founded in 2009 by the Michael Marks Charitable Trust, in a collaboration with the British Library that continues to this day. They are funded entirely by the Michael Marks Charitable Trust, and are enabled through partnerships between the British Library, the Wordsworth Trust, The TLS and the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies, and in association with the National Library of Wales and the National Library of Scotland. As of 2012, the awards have been administered by Wordsworth Trust. The Michael Marks Charitable Trust was established in 1966 by the late Lord Marks, 2nd Baron of Broughton. Both awards carry a prize of ã5,000.
The Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney praised the prize's establishment:
The award recognises an outstanding work of poetry published in pamphlet form â defined by the Awards as containing no more than 36 pages â in the UK.
The following is a list of shortlisted pamphlets. Winners are listed in yellow, first in their year.
The Michael Marks Publishers' Award recognises an outstanding UK publisher of poetry in pamphlet form.
The following is a list of shortlisted publishers. Winners are listed in yellow, first in their year.
In 2019, the inaugural Michael Marks Award for Poetry in a Celtic Language was awarded to for his pamphlet moroedd/dà µr, published by .
This was inaugurated 2022-23 and recognises an outstanding UK poetry in pamphlet form about climate change, its effects and what to do about it. There is one award each year. They have been: