Warwick graduate Phil Brown has had his first unpublished poetry collection shortlisted for the prestigious Crashaw Prize.

The Crashaw Prize, named after 17^th Century metaphysical poet Richard Crashaw, is an international prize which was launched in 2008 by independent poetry press Salt Publishing.

Phil Brown, who studied English and Creative Writing at the University of Warwick from 2005 until 2008, submitted his collection Il Avilit. This was an expanded version of his final year Personal Writing Project.

Phil said: "I was delighted to poke my head out of the piles of GCSE coursework I've been marking to find that I'd been shortlisted this year. I'm really grateful to all of the wonderful Creative Writing teachers at Warwick for the advice they gave me in putting together a collection."

This year the Prize attracted 120 full length manuscripts from poets in the UK and Ireland, the USA, Australia and New Zealand. A longlist of 35 collections were selected from these submissions and now 12 of those have been chosen for the shortlist.

From this shortlist Salt Publishing will select this year’s winners and publish four collections during 2010, the company’s 10^th anniversary. The winners will be announced on Friday 26 February.

Notes to editors

For more information about the prize, visit http://www.saltpublishing.com/prizes/poetry/crashawprize.php

For more information about the University, contact Kelly Parkes-Harrison, k.e.parkes@warwick.ac.uk, 02476 574255, 07824 540863.