Poet Sharon Olds said she hoped her poems about the break-up of her marriage after 32 years would be “useful” to others after she became the first American woman to win the £15,000 TS Eliot Prize.
Olds, 70, said at the prize ceremony in the Courtyard at the Wallace Collection in Marylebone that writing the poems had helped her get over the shock of her husband’s departure.
She said: “You want to make something that has some value, especially if you’re feeling unvaluable, worthless. And when you’re writing, you’re concentrating so hard you’re in a different state.”
But she said she had no idea whether her poems were any good and was “a little shocked” to have beaten 130 others in the largest number of submissions in the prize’s 20-year history.
She said she did not feel triumphalist about turning the pain of being left into such success.
“I feel lucky I was able to write something that these amazing judges liked. And you want the poems to have some life in the world and to see if anybody would have some use for them.”
Olds admitted it had been “a big challenge” when her husband left her and she had been forced to “learn things about my identity”.
She said she had delayed publication for the sake of her children so it was “a long time ago” and she was now happy with a new partner.
Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, who led the judging panel, hailed Olds as a “world-class poet”.
