# Costa Book Award for Poetry

The Costa Book Award for Poetry, formerly known as the Whitbread Award (1971–2006), was an annual literary award for poetry collections, part of the Costa Book Awards. The award concluded in 2022.

## Recipients

Costa Books of the Year are distinguished with a bold font and a blue ribbon. Award winners are listed in bold.
Costa Book Award for Poetry winners and finalists :
| Year | Author | Title | Result |
| 1971 | Geoffrey Hill | Mercian Hymns | Winner |
| No award presented 1972-1984 |||||
| 1985 | Douglas Dunn | Elegies | Winner |
| 1986 | Peter Reading | Stet | Winner |
| 1987 | Seamus Heaney | The Haw Lantern | Winner |
| 1988 | Peter Porter | The Automatic Oracle | Winner |
| 1989 | Michael Donaghy | Shibboleth | Winner |
| 1990 | Paul Durcan | Daddy, Daddy | Winner |
| 1991 | Michael Longley | Gorse Fires | Winner |
| 1992 | Tony Harrison | The Gaze of the Gorgon | Winner |
| 1993 | Carol Ann Duffy | Mean Time | Winner |
| 1994 | James Fenton | Out of Danger | Winner |
| 1995 | Bernard O'Donoghue | Gunpowder | Winner |
| 1995 | Simon Armitage | The Dead Sea Poems | Shortlist |
| 1995 | Tony Harrison | The Shadow of Hiroshima and other film/poems | Shortlist |
| 1995 | Glyn Maxwell | Rest for the Wicked | Shortlist |
| 1996 | Seamus Heaney | The Spirit Level | Winner |
| 1996 | U. A. Fanthorpe | Safe as Houses | Shortlist |
| 1996 | Alice Oswald | The Thing in the Gap-Stone Stile | Shortlist |
| 1996 | Christopher Reid | Expanded Universes | Shortlist |
| 1996 | Pauline Stainer | The Wound-dresser's Dream | Shortlist |
| 1997 | Ted Hughes | Tales from Ovid | Winner |
| 1997 | Simon Armitage | CloudCuckooLand | Shortlist |
| 1997 | Selima Hill | Sugar-Paper blue Violet | Shortlist |
| 1997 | Christopher Reid | Expanded Universes | Shortlist |
| 1997 | Peter Redgrove | Assembling a Ghost | Shortlist |
| 1998 | Ted Hughes | Birthday Letters | Winner |
| 1998 | Philip Gross | The Wasting Game | Shortlist |
| 1998 | Paul Farley | The Boy from the Chemist is Here to See you | Shortlist |
| 1999 | Seamus Heaney | Beowulf: A New Verse Translation | Winner |
| 1999 | Michael Hofmann | Approximately Nowhere | Shortlist |
| 1999 | Ted Hughes | Alcestis | Shortlist |
| 1999 | Don Paterson | The Eyes | Shortlist |
| 2000 | John Burnside | The Asylum Dance | Winner |
| 2000 | Michael Donaghy | Conjure | Shortlist |
| 2000 | R F Langley | Collected Poems | Shortlist |
| 2000 | Anne Stevenson | Granny Scarecrow | Shortlist |
| 2000 | Maurice Riordan | Floods | Shortlist |
| 2001 | Selima Hill | Bunny | Winner |
| 2001 | Charles Boyle | The Age of Cardboard and String | Shortlist |
| 2001 | Wendy Cope | If I don't know | Shortlist |
| 2001 | John Stammers | Panoramic Lounge-Bar | Shortlist |
| 2002 | Paul Farley | The Ice Age | Winner |
| 2002 | David Constantine | Something for the Ghosts | Shortlist |
| 2002 | Ruth Padel | Voodoo Shop | Shortlist |
| 2002 | Sheenagh Pugh | The Beautiful Lie | Shortlist |
| 2003 | Don Paterson | Landing Light | Winner |
| 2003 | Lavinia Greenlaw | Minsk | Shortlist |
| 2003 | Jamie McKendrick | Ink Stone | Shortlist |
| 2003 | Jean Sprackland | Hard Water | Shortlist |
| 2004 | Michael Symmons Roberts | Corpus | Winner |
| 2004 | Leontia Flynn | These Days | Shortlist |
| 2004 | John Fuller | Ghosts | Shortlist |
| 2004 | Matthew Hollis | Ground Water | Shortlist |
| 2004 | Michael Symmons Roberts | Corpus | Shortlist |
| 2005 | Christopher Logue | Cold Calls | Winner |
| 2005 | David Harsent | Legion | Shortlist |
| 2005 | Richard Price | Lucky Day | Shortlist |
| 2005 | Jane Yeh | Marabou | Shortlist |
| 2006 | John Haynes | Letter to Patience | Winner |
| 2006 | Vicki Feaver | The Book of Blood | Shortlist |
| 2006 | Seamus Heaney | District and Circle | Shortlist |
| 2006 | Hugo Williams | Dear Room | Shortlist |
| 2007 | Jean Sprackland | Tilt | Winner |
| 2007 | Ian Duhig | The Speed of Dark | Shortlist |
| 2007 | John Fuller | The Space of Joy | Shortlist |
| 2007 | Daljit Nagra | Look We Have Coming to Dover! | Shortlist |
| 2008 | Adam Foulds | The Broken Word | Winner |
| 2008 | Ciarán Carson | For All We Know | Shortlist |
| 2008 | Kathryn Simmonds | Sunday at the Skin Launderette | Shortlist |
| 2008 | Greta Stoddart | Salvation Jane | Shortlist |
| 2009 | Christopher Reid | A Scattering | Winner |
| 2009 | Clive James | Angels Over Elsinore | Shortlist |
| 2009 | Katharine Kilalea | One Eye'd Leigh | Shortlist |
| 2009 | Ruth Padel | Darwin: A Life in Poems | Shortlist |
| 2010 | Jo Shapcott | Of Mutability | Winner |
| 2010 | Roy Fisher | Standard Midland | Shortlist |
| 2010 | Robin Robertson | The Wrecking Light | Shortlist |
| 2010 | Sam Willetts | New Light for the Old Dark | Shortlist |
| 2011 | Carol Ann Duffy | The Bees | Winner |
| 2011 | David Harsent | Night | Shortlist |
| 2011 | Jackie Kay | Fiere | Shortlist |
| 2011 | Sean O'Brien | November | Shortlist |
| 2012 | Kathleen Jamie | The Overhaul | Winner |
| 2012 | Sean Borodale | Bee Journal | Shortlist |
| 2012 | Julia Copus | The World's Two Smallest Humans | Shortlist |
| 2012 | Selima Hill | People Who Like Meatballs | Shortlist |
| 2013 | Michael Symmons Roberts | Drysalter | Winner |
| 2013 | Clive James | Dante, The Divine Comedy | Shortlist |
| 2013 | Helen Mort | Division Street | Shortlist |
| 2013 | Robin Robertson | Hill of Doors | Shortlist |
| 2014 | Jonathan Edwards | My Family and Other Superheroes | Winner |
| 2014 | Colette Bryce | The Whole and Rain-domed Universe | Shortlist |
| 2014 | Lavinia Greenlaw | A Double Sorrow: Troilus and Criseyde | Shortlist |
| 2014 | Kei Miller | The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion | Shortlist |
| 2015 | Don Paterson | 40 Sonnets | Winner |
| 2015 | Andrew McMillan | Physical | Shortlist |
| 2015 | Kate Miller | The Observances | Shortlist |
| 2015 | Neil Rollinson | Talking Dead | Shortlist |
| 2016 | Alice Oswald | Falling Awake | Winner |
| 2016 | Melissa Lee-Houghton | | Shortlist |
| 2016 | Denise Riley | | Shortlist |
| 2016 | Kae Tempest | | Shortlist |
| 2017 | Helen Dunmore | Inside the Wave | Winner |
| 2017 | Kayo Chingonyi | Kumukanda | Shortlist |
| 2017 | Sinéad Morrissey | On Balance | Shortlist |
| 2017 | Richard Osmond | Useful Verses | Shortlist |
| 2018 | J. O. Morgan | Assurances | Winner |
| 2018 | Zaffar Kunial | Us | Shortlist |
| 2018 | Richard Scott | Soho | Shortlist |
| 2018 | Hannah Sullivan | Three Poems | Shortlist |
| 2019 | Mary Jean Chan | Flèche | Winner |
| 2019 | Jay Bernard | Surge | Shortlist |
| 2019 | Paul Farley | The Mizzy | Shortlist |
| 2019 | John McCullough | Reckless Paper Birds | Shortlist |
| 2020 | Eavan Boland | The Historians | Winner |
| 2020 | Caroline Bird | The Air Year | Shortlist |
| 2020 | Rachel Long | My Darling from the Lions | Shortlist |
| 2020 | Martha Sprackland | Citadel | Shortlist |
| 2021 | Hannah Lowe | The Kids | Winner |
| 2021 | Raymond Antrobus | All the Names Given | Shortlist |
| 2021 | Kayo Chingonyi | A Blood Condition | Shortlist |
| 2021 | Victoria Kennefick | Eat or We Both Starve | Shortlist |