Why I like poet John Kinsella

The Guardian reports:

TS Eliot himself worked for Lloyds Bank, but John Kinsella has now become the second poet to withdraw from the prize set up in Eliot’s name in protest at its sponsorship by an investment firm.

Kinsella, winner of a host of poetry awards in his native Australia and author of more than 30 books, said this morning that he supported the British poet Alice Oswald in her decision to pull out of the TS Eliot prize over its newly-brokered sponsorship by investment management firm Aurum Funds. He has informed the Poetry Book Society, which administers the prize, that he is withdrawing his collection Armour from the running for the £15,000 award.

“I am grateful to Alice Oswald for bringing the sponsorship of the TS Eliot Prize to my attention,” said Kinsella in a statement released by his publisher. “I regret that I must do this at a particularly difficult time for the Poetry Book Society but the business of Aurum does not sit with my personal politics and ethics. I am grateful to everyone at the PBS for all they have done to promote my work and that of poetry in general.”