Duffy holds honorary doctorates from the University of Dundee, the University of Hull, the University of St Andrews, and the University of Warwick, as well as an Honorary Fellowship at Homerton College, Cambridge.[4][49]
- 1983: National Poetry Competition 1st prize (for Whoever She Was)
- 1983: Greenwich Poetry Competition ("for Words of Absolution")
- 1984: Eric Gregory Award
- 1986: Scottish Arts Council Book Award (for Standing Female Nude)
- 1988: Somerset Maugham Award (for Selling Manhattan)
- 1989: Dylan Thomas Prize
- 1990: Scottish Arts Council Book Award (for The Other Country
- 1992: Cholmondeley Award
- 1993: Whitbread Awards (for Mean Time)
- 1993: Scottish Arts Council Book Award (for Mean Time)
- 1993: Forward Prize (for Mean Time)
- 1995: Lannan Award
- 1999: Signal Children's Poetry Prize
- 1999: Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
- 2001: National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts Award
- 2005: T S Eliot Prize (for Rapture)
- 2011: Costa Book Awards (Poetry), winner, The Bees[50]
- 2012 PEN/Pinter Prize
- 2013: Assessed as one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4.[51]
- 2015: Elected as an Honorary Fellow of the British Academy.[52]
- 2015: Elected as an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh[53]
- 2021: Struga Poetry Evenings Golden Wreath Laureate[54]
She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1995, Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2002, and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to poetry.[55][56]
