Don Paterson

 ( 1963 Births ) 

His first collection of poetry, Nil Nil (1993), won the Forward Poetry Prize for Best First Collection. God's Gift to Women (1997) won the T. S. Eliot Prize and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. The Eyes, adaptations of the work of Spanish poet Antonio Machado (1875–1939), was published in 1999. He is the editor of 101 Sonnets: From Shakespeare to Seamus Heaney (1999) and of Last Words: New Poetry for the New Century (1999) with Jo Shapcott. Paterson's collection of poems Landing Light (2003) won both the 2003 T. S. Eliot Prize and the 2003 Whitbread Poetry Award. He has also published three collections of aphorisms, The Book of Shadows (2004), The Blind Eye (2007) and Best Thought, Worst Thought (2008). Orpheus, his version of Rilke's Die Sonette an Orpheus, was published in 2006.

Paterson taught in the school of English at the University of St Andrews and was the poetry editor for London publishers Picador for more than 25 years. An accomplished jazz guitarist, he works solo and for ten years ran the jazz-folk ensemble Lammas with Tim Garland.

In 2012, Paterson wrote an open letter in The Herald criticising Scotland's arts funding council Creative Scotland.

In 2012–2013, he was the Weidenfeld Visiting professor of European Comparative Literature in St Anne's College, Oxford.

Paterson's memoir Toy Fights: A Boyhood was published Faber & Faber in January 2023.

Collections

• Don Paterson (1993). 9780571170876, Faber & Faber. ISBN 9780571170876
• Don Paterson (1997). 9780571177622, Faber & Faber. ISBN 9780571177622
• Don Paterson (1999). 9780571200559, Faber & Faber. ISBN 9780571200559
• Don Paterson (2026). 9781555973537, Graywolf Press. ISBN 9781555973537
• Don Paterson (2026). 9781466880689, Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 9781466880689
  (winner of Forward Poetry Prize)
• Don Paterson (2026). 9780571281787, Faber & Faber. ISBN 9780571281787
• Don Paterson (2026). 9780571310890, Faber & Faber. ISBN 9780571310890
  (shortlisted for the 2016 Griffin Poetry Prize)
• Don Paterson (2026). 9780571338245, Faber & Faber. ISBN 9780571338245
• Don Paterson (2026). 9780571338184, Faber & Faber. ISBN 9780571338184

• Don Paterson (2026). 9781909942288, Gingko Library. ISBN 9781909942288

Anthologies

• 101 Sonnets, 1999
• Last Words, 1999, with (Jo Shapcott)
• Robert Burns, poems selected by Don Paterson, 2001
• New British Poetry with Charles Simic, Graywolf Press, 2004,

List of poems

• The Land of Cakes (with Gordon McPherson) (2001)
• A'body's Aberdee (2001)

• Kailyard Blues (1999)
• Ringing the Changes (1999) with (Jo Shapcott)
• The Aberdee Brief (2000)
• The Latecomers (2001)

• The Book of Shadows Picador, 2004,
• The Blind Eye (2007)
• Best Thought, Worst Thought (2008)

• (2026). 9780571263998, Faber & Faber. . ISBN 9780571263998
• Smith: A Reader's Guide to the Poetry of Michael Donaghy (2014)
• (2026). 9780571206629, Faber & Faber. ISBN 9780571206629

• Ben Wilkinson (2026). 9781837644421, Liverpool University Press. ISBN 9781837644421
• (2026). 9780748669424, Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 9780748669424

• Poet's official website
• "Private Enterprise for the Public Good" John Stammers interviews Don Paterson. No 12 - Spring 1998 Magma, via Poetry Magazines
• Paterson profile at Poetry Foundation
• Profile at Scottish Poetry Library
• Biography and bibliography at British Council Contemporary Writers site
• Biography, poetry excerpts from Griffin Poetry Prize website