Duffy to donate Laureate money to poetry prize

Carol Ann Duffy, who will be unveiled today as the new Poet Laureate, will give up her stipend to fund an annual poetry prize.

Duffy, 53, is entitled to £5,750 a year, but she has asked that it is given to the Poetry Society to fund the prize for the best collection of published poetry. She will be officially announced today as the new Laureate - taking over from Andrew Motion - at a an event in Manchester.

Her appointment was approved by the Queen, following a recommendation by Culture Secretary Andy Burnham. She will hold the post for 10 years and follows in the footsteps of poets such as John Dryden, William Wordsworth, Lord Tennyson, John Masefield, Sir John Betjeman and Ted Hughes. She is the first woman to hold the post.

Duffy, who was born in Glasgow, was a frontrunner last time the post was on offer but is said to have lost out partly because Tony Blair was concerned by her private life.

The professor of contemporary poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University is a lesbian and single mother. She was awarded the OBE in 1995 and the CBE in 2002 for services to poetry.

Duffy said today: "I'm very honoured and humbled to become Poet Laureate, not only when I think of some of the great poets who have occupied the post, but when I think of the wonderful poets writing now. The Laureateship is important because it draws attention to the role poetry can play in the lives of ordinary people."

Gordon Brown said: "She is a truly brilliant poet who has stretched our imaginations by putting a whole range of human experiences into lines that capture the emotions perfectly."