Founded in 2009, The Michael Marks Awards for Poetry Pamphlets now included four categories. From their inception, the awards have aimed both to promote the pamphlet form and to enable poets and publishers to develop and continue creating. The awards offer prizes for: Poetry Pamphlet (£5,000), Publisher (£5,000), Illustration (£1,000) and Environmental Poetry Pamphlet (£1,000). Two places on the residential trip to in Greece are also awarded, to the winners of the Poetry Pamphlet and Environmental Poetry Pamphlet.  

The awards are funded entirely by the Michael Marks Charitable Trust and have grown to include four partners who collectively enable the awards: The British Library, Wordsworth Grasmere, The British School at Athens and The TLS.