The Irish poet Eavan Boland, who died last year aged 75, has been posthumously awarded the Costa poetry prize, it was announced on Monday night. Her final collection, The Historians, published in October last year by Carcanet, was said by the judges to contain “some of the finest lines of poetry written this century”. Boland is the third poet to win the category posthumously, joining Ted Hughes and Helen Dunmore.

Shortlisted with Boland for the poetry prize were Forward prize winner Caroline Bird, with her collection The Air Year, Rachel Long with My Darling from the Lions, and Martha Sprackland with Citadel.