Michael Longley was born in Belfast. His previous books include The Ghost Orchid and Gorse Fires, which won the Whitbread Prize for Poetry. His Selected Poems was published in 1998 and The Weather in Japan has already won the Hawthornden Prize and the T.S. Eliot Prize. Earlier this year, he was the recipient of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a member of Aosdβna. The Weather in Japan is published by Cape Poetry.
Also shortlisted: Richard Murphy, Collected Poems (Gallery Press); Dennis O'Driscoll, Weather Permitting (Anvil Press Poetry)