Forward Prize Alumni

2023
Best Collection

Jason Allen-Paisant, Self Portrait as Othello (Carcanet)
Mary Jean Chan, Bright Fear (Faber & Faber)
Jane Clarke, A Change in the Air (Bloodaxe)
Kit Fan, The Ink Cloud Reader (Carcanet)
Elisabeth Sennitt Clough, My Name is Abilene (Salt)

Best First Collection

Susannah Dickey, ISDAL (Picador)
Rowan Evans, A Method, A Path (Bloomsbury)
Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa, Cane, Corn & Gully (Out-Spoken Press)
Momtaza Mehri, Bad Diaspora Poems (Jonathan Cape)
Kandace Siobhan Walker, Cowboy (Cheerio Publishing)

Best Single Poem – Written

Kathryn Bevis, ‘My body tells me that she’s filing for divorce’ (Second Light Poetry Competition)
Malika Booker, ‘Libation’ (The Poetry Review)
Kizziah Burton, ‘Oh do you know the Flower Man’ (Mslexia Women’s Poetry Competition)
Breda Spaight, ‘The Curse’ (Southword)
Eric Yip, ‘Fricatives’ (National Poetry Competition)

Best Single Poem – Performed

Zena Edwards, ‘Human : This Embodied Knowledge’
Michael Pedersen, ‘The Cat Prince’
Bohdan Piasecki, ‘Almost Certainly’
Roger Robinson, ‘The City Kids See the Sea’
Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe, ‘And our eyes are on Europe’

2022
Best Collection

Kaveh Akbar, Pilgrim Bell (Chatto & Windus)
Anthony Joseph, Sonnets for Albert (Bloomsbury)
Shane McCrae, Cain Named the Animal (Little Brown)
Kim Moore, All the Men I Never Married (Seren)
Helen Mort, The Illustrated Woman (Chatto & Windus)

Best First Collection

Mohammed El-Kurd, Rifqa (Haymarket)
Holly Hopkins, English Summer (Penned in the Margins)
Padraig Regan, Some Integrity (Carcanet)
Warsan Shire, Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head (Chatto & Windus)
Stephanie Sy-Quia, Amnion (Granta)

Best Single Poem

Louisa Campbell, ‘Dog on a British Airways Airbus’ (Perverse)
Cecilia Knapp, ‘I’m Shouting I LOVED YOUR DAD at my Brother’s Cat’ (Perverse)
Nick Laird, ‘Up Late’ (Granta)
Carl Phillips, ‘Scattered Snows, to the North’ (PN Review)
Clare Pollard, ‘Pollen’ (Bad Lilies)

2021
Best Collection

Kayo Chingonyi A Blood Condition (Chatto and Windus)
Tishani Doshi A God at the Door (Bloodaxe Books)
Selima Hill Men Who Feed Pigeons (Bloodaxe Books)
Luke Kennard Notes on the Sonnets (Penned in the Margins)
Stephen Sexton Cheryl’s Destinies (Penguin Poetry)

Best First Collection

Caleb Femi Poor (Penguin Poetry)
Alice Hiller Bird of Winter (Pavilion Poetry)
Cynthia Miller Honorifics (Nine Arches Press)
Holly Pester Comic Timing (Granta Poetry)
Ralf Webb Rotten Days in Late Summer (Penguin Poetry)

Best Single Poem

Fiona Benson ‘Androgeus’ (Times Literary Supplement)
Natalie Linh Bolderston ‘Middle Name with Diacritics’ (National Poetry Competition)
John McCullough ‘Flower of Sulphur’ (Poetry London)
Denise Riley ‘1948’ (Poetry Ireland Review)
Nicole Sealey ‘Pages 22-29, An excerpt from The Ferguson Report: An Erasure’ (Poetry London)

2020
Best Collection

Caroline Bird The Air Year (Carcanet)
Natalie Diaz Postcolonial Love Poem (Faber & Faber)
Vicki Feaver I Want! I Want! (Cape)
David Morley Fury (Carcanet)
Pascale Petit Tiger Girl (Bloodaxe Books)

Best First Collection

Ella Frears Shine, Darling (Offord Road Books)
Will Harris RENDANG (Granta)
Rachel Long My Darlings from the Lions (Picador Poetry)
Nina Mingya Powles Magnolia 木蘭 (Nine Arches Press)
Martha Sprackland Citadel (Pavilion Poetry)

Best Single Poem

Fiona Benson ‘Mama Cockroach, I Love You’
 (Poetry London)
Malika Booker ‘The Little Miracles’
 (Magma)
Regi Claire ‘(Un)certainties’
 (Mslexia & PBS Women’s Poetry Competition)
Valzhyna Mort ‘Nocturne for a Moving Train’ 
(The Poetry Review)
Sarah Tsiang ‘Dick pics’
 (The Moth)

2019
Best Collection

Fiona Benson Vertigo & Ghost (Cape)
Niall Campbell Noctuary (Bloodaxe Books)
Ilya Kaminsky Deaf Republic (Faber & Faber)
Vidyan Ravinthiran The Million-petalled Flower of Being Here (Bloodaxe Books)
Helen Tookey City of Departures (Carcanet)

Best First Collection

Raymond Antrobus The Perseverance (Penned in the Margins)
Jay Bernard Surge (Chatto & Windus)
David Cain Truth Street (Smokestack Books)
Isabel Galleymore Significant Other (Carcanet)
Stephen Sexton If All the World and Love Were Young (Penguin Books)

Best Single Poem

Liz Berry ‘Highbury Park’ (Wild Court)
Mary Jean Chan ‘The Window’ (The National Poetry Competition by the Poetry Society)
Jonathan Edwards ‘Bridge’ (The Frogmore Papers)
Parwana Fayyaz ‘Forty Names’ (PN Review)
Holly Pester ‘Comic Timing’ (Granta Magazine)

2018
Best Collection

Vahni Capildeo Venus as a Bear (Carcanet)
J. O. Morgan Assurances (Cape Poetry)
Toby Martinez de las Rivas Black Sun (Faber & Faber)
Danez Smith Don’t Call Us Dead (Chatto & Windus)
Tracy K. Smith Wade in the Water (Penguin UK)

Best First Collection

Kaveh Akbar Calling a Wolf a Wolf (Penguin UK)
Abigail Parry Jinx (Bloodaxe Books)
Phoebe Power Shrines of Upper Austria (Carcanet)
Shivanee Ramlochan Everyone Knows I Am a Haunting (Peepal Tree Press)
Richard Scott Soho (Faber & Faber)

Best Single Poem

Fiona Benson ‘Ruins’ (Wild Court)
Liz Berry ‘The Republic of Motherhood’ (Granta)
Sumita Chakraborty ‘And death demands a labor’ (PN Review)
Jorie Graham ‘Tree’ (LRB)
Will Harris ‘SAY’ (The Poetry Review)

2017
Best Collection

Nuar Alsadir Fourth Person Singular (Pavilion Poetry)
Tara Bergin The Tragic Death of Eleanor Marx (Carcanet)
Emily Berry Stranger, Baby (Faber & Faber)
Michael Longley Angel Hill (Cape Poetry)
Sinéad Morrissey On Balance (Carcanet)

Best First Collection

Maria Apichella Psalmody (Eyewear Publishing)
Richard Georges Make Us All Islands (Shearsman Books)
Eric Langley Raking Light (Carcanet)
Nick Makoha Kingdom of Gravity (Peepal Tree Press)
Ocean Vuong Night Sky with Exit Wounds (Cape Poetry)

Best Single Poem

Malika Booker ‘Nine Nights’ (Poetry Review)
Mary Jean Chan ‘//’ (Ambit)
Harmony Holiday ‘The City Admits no Wrongdoing’ (Prac Crit)
Ishion Hutchinson ‘Nightfall, Jane Ash Corner, St. Thomas’ (The Well Review)
Ian Patterson ‘The Plenty of Nothing’ (PN Review)

2016
Best Collection

Vahni Capildeo Measures of Expatriation (Carcanet)
Ian Duhig The Blind Roadmaker (Picador)
Choman Hardi Consider the Women (Bloodaxe)
Alice Oswald Falling Awake (Cape)
Denise Riley Say Something Back (Picador)

Best First Collection

Nancy Campbell Disko Bay (Enitharmon)
Ron Carey Distance (Revival Press)
Harry Josephine Giles Tonguit (Freight)
Ruby Robinson Every Little Sound (Liverpool University Press)
Tiphanie Yanique Wife (Peepal Tree)

Best Single Poem

Sasha Dugdale ‘Joy’ (PN Review)
Rachel Hadas ‘RooseveltHospitalBlues’ (TLS)
David Harsent ‘Salt’ (Poetry London)
Melissa Lee-Houghton ‘i am very precious’ (Prac Crit)
Solmaz Sharif ‘ForceVisibility’ (Granta)

2015
Best Collection

Ciaran Carson From Elsewhere (The Gallery Press)
Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin The Boys of Bluehill (The Gallery Press)
Paul Muldoon One Thousand Things Worth Knowing (Faber & Faber)
Claudia Rankine Citizen: An American Lyric (Penguin Books)
Peter Riley Due North (Shearsman)

Best First Collection

Mona Arshi Small Hands (Liverpool University Press, Pavilion Poetry)
Sarah Howe Loop of Jade (Chatto & Windus)
Andrew McMillan physical (Cape Poetry)
Matthew Siegel Blood Work (CB editions)
Karen McCarthy Woolf An Aviary of Small Birds (Carcanet)

Best Single Poem

Maura Dooley ‘Cleaning Jim Dine’s Heart’ (The Poetry Review)
Andrew Elliott ‘Doppelgänger’ (Sonofabook)
Ann Gray ‘My Blue Hen’ (The Moth)
Claire Harman ‘The Mighty Hudson’ (Times Literary Supplement)
Kim Moore ‘In That Year’ (Poetry News)

2014
Best Collection

Colette Bryce The Whole and Rain-Domed Universe (Picador)
John Burnside All One Breath (Cape)
Louise Gluck Faithful and Virtuous Night (Carcanet)
Kei Miller The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion (Carcanet)
Hugo Williams I Knew the Bride (Faber)

Best First Collection

Fiona Benson Bright Travellers (Cape)
Liz Berry Black Country (Chatto & Windus)
Niall Campbell Moontide (Bloodaxe)
Beatrice Garland The Invention of Fireworks (Templar)
Kevin Powers Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting (Sceptre)
Vidyan Ravinthiran Grun-tu-molani (Bloodaxe)

Best Single Poem

Tim Nolan ‘Red Wing Correctional Facility’ (Troubadour International Poetry Prize)
Denise Riley ‘After La Rochefoucauld’ (Eggbox)
Stephen Santus ‘In a Restaurant’ (The Bridport Prize)
Jack Underwood ‘Thank You for your Email’ (The White Review)
Jeffrey Wainwright ‘An Empty Street’ (PN Review)

2013
Best Collection

Rebecca Goss Her Birth (Carcanet)
Glyn Maxwell Pluto (Picador)
Sinead Morrissey Parallax (Carcanet)
Jacob Polley The Havocs (Picador)
Michael Symmons Roberts Drysalter (Cape)

Best First Collection

Emily Berry Dear Boy (Faber)
Steve Ely Oswald’s Book of Hours (Smokestack)
Hannah Lowe Chick (Bloodaxe)
Marianne Burton She Inserts the Key (Seren)
Adam White Accurate Measurements (Doire)

Best Single Poem

Patience Agbabi ‘The Doll’s House’ (The Poetry Review)
Nick MacKinnon ‘The Metric System’ (The Warwick Review)
Rosie Shepperd ‘A Seedy Narrative or Moments of Lyrical Stillness’ (Smith | Doorstop)
Hugo Williams ‘From the Dialysis Ward’ (London Review of Books)

2012
Best Collection

Beverley Bie Brahic White Sheets (CB Editions)
Jorie Graham PLACE (Carcanet)
Barry Hill Naked Clay: Drawing from Lucian Freud (Shearsman)
Geoffrey Hill Odi Barbare (Clutag)
Selima Hill People Who Like Meatballs (Bloodaxe)

Best First Collection

Loretta Collins Klobah The Twelve Foot Neon Woman (Peepal Tree)
Rhian Edwards Clueless Dogs (Seren)
Lucy Hamilton Stalker (Shearsman)
Sam Riviere 81 Austerities (Faber)
Jacob Sam-La Rose Breaking Silence (Bloodaxe)

Best Single Poem

Marilyn Hacker ‘Fugue on a Line of Amr Bin M’ad Yakrib’ (The Wolf Magazine)
John Kinsella ‘Mea Culpa: Cleaning the Gutters’ (The Warwick Review)
Michael Longley ‘Marigolds, 1960’ (London Review of Books)
Denise Riley ‘A Part Song’ (London Review of Books)
Greta Stoddart ‘Deep Sea Diver’ (Magma Poetry)

2011
Best Collection

John Burnside Black Cat Bone (Cape)
David Harsent Night (Faber & Faber)
Geoffrey Hill Clavics (Enitharmon)
Michael Longley A Hundred Doors (Cape)
D Nurkse Voices Over Water (CB Editions)
Sean O’Brien November (Picador)

Best First Collection

Rachael Boast Sidereal (Picador)
Judy Brown Loudness (Seren)
Nancy Gaffield Tokaido Road (CB Editions)
Ahren Warner Confer (Bloodaxe)
John Whale Waterloo Teeth (Carcanet/Northern House)
Nerys Williams Sound Archive (Seren)

Best Single Poem

RF Langley ‘To A Nightingale’ (London Review of Books)
Alan Jenkins ‘Southern Rail (The Four Students)’ (The Poetry Review)
Sharon Olds ‘Song the Breasts Sing to the Late-in-Life Boyfriend’ (Poetry London)
Jo Shapcott ‘Bees’ (The Poetry Review)

2010
Best Collection

Seamus Heaney Human Chain (Faber & Faber)
Lachlan Mackinnon Small Hours (Faber & Faber)
Sinead Morrissey Through the Square Window (Carcanet)
Robin Robertson The Wrecking Light (Picador)
Fiona Sampson Rough Music (Carcanet)
Jo Shapcott Of Mutability (Faber & Faber)

Best First Collection

Christian Campbell Running the Dusk (Peepal Tree)
Hilary Menos Berg (Seren)
Abigail Morley How to Pour Madness into a Teacup (Cinnamon Press)
Helen Oswald Learning Gravity (Tall Lighthouse)
Steve Spence A Curious Shipwreck (Shearsman Books)
Sam Willetts New Light for the Old Dark (Cape)

Best Single Poem

Kate Bingham ‘On Highgate Hill’ (Times Literary Supplement)
Julia Copus ‘An Easy Passage’ (Magma)
Lydia Fulleylove ‘Night Drive’ (The Bridport Prize)
Chris Jones ‘Sentences’ (Staple)
Ian Pindar ‘Mrs Beltinska in the Bath’ (National Poetry Competition)
Lee Sands ‘The Reach’ (Times Literary Supplement)

2009
Best Collection

Glyn Maxwell Hide Now (Picador)
Sharon Olds One Secret Thing (Cape)
Don Paterson Rain (Faber)
Peter Porter Better Than God (Picador)
Christopher Reid A Scattering (Arete)
Hugo Williams West End Final (Faber)

Best First Collection

Sian Hughes The Missing (Salt)
Emma Jones The Striped World (Faber)
Meirion Jordan Moonrise (Seren)
Lorraine Mariner Furniture (Picador)
J O Morgan Natural Mechanical (CB Editions)
Meghan O’Rourke Halflife (WW Norton)

Best Single Poem

Paul Farley ‘Moles’ (The Poetry Review)
Michael Longley ‘Visiting Stanley Kunitz’ (Irish pages)
Robin Robertson ‘At Roane Head’ (London Review of Books)
Elizabeth Speller ‘Finistere’ (The Bridport Prize)
George Szirtes ‘Song’ (The Liberal)
CK Williams ‘Either/Or’ (The Poetry Review)

2008
Best Collection

Sujata Bhatt Pure Lizard (Carcanet)
Jane Griffiths Another Country (Bloodaxe)
Jen Hadfield Nigh-No-Place (Bloodaxe)
Mick Imlah The Lost Leader (Faber)
Jamie McKendrick Crocodiles & Obelisks (Faber)
Catherine Smith Lip (Smith/Doorstop)

Best First Collection

Simon Barraclough Los Alamos Mon Amour (Salt)
Andrew Forster Fear of Thunder (Flambard Press)
Frances Leviston Public Dream (Picador)
Allison McVety The Night Trotsky Came to Stay (Smith/Doorstop)
Stephanie Norgate Hidden River (Bloodaxe)
Kathryn Simmonds Sunday at the Skin Launderette (Seren)

Best Single Poem

Christopher Buelhman ‘Wanton’ (The Bridport Prize)
Seamus Heaney ‘Cutaways’ (Irish pages)
Catherine Ormell ‘Campaign Desk, December 1812’ (The Bridport Prize)
Don Paterson ‘Love Poem for Natalie ‘Tusja’ Beridze’ (The Poetry Review)
Kate Rhodes ‘Wells-next-the-Sea’ (The Bridport Prize)
Tim Turnbull ‘Ode on a Grayson Perry Urn’ (Magma Poetry)

2007
Best Collection

Eavan Boland Domestic Violence (Carcanet)
John Burnside Gift Songs (Cape)
Luke Kennard The Harbour Beyond the Movie (Salt)
Jack Mapanje Beasts of Nalunga (Bloodaxe)
Sean O’Brien The Drowned Book (Picador)
Adam Thorpe Birds with a Broken Wing (Cape)

Best First Collection

Joanna Boulter Twenty Four Preludes and Fugues on Dimitri Shostakovich (Arc)
Melanie Challenger Galatea (Salt)
Daljit Nagra Look We Have Coming to Dover! (Faber)
Eleanor Rees Andraste’s Hair (Salt)

Best Single Poem

David Harsent ‘The Hut in Question’ (The Poetry Review)
Lorraine Mariner ‘Thursday’ (The Rialto)
Alice Oswald ‘Dunt’ (Poetry London)
Carole Sayamurti ‘The Day I Knew I Wouldn’t Live for Ever’ (The Interpreter’s House)
Myra Schneider ‘Goulash (The North)
Jean Sprackland ‘from The Birkdale Nightingale’ (The Poetry Review)

2006
Best Collection

Kate Bingham Quicksand Beach (Seren)
Paul Farley Tramp in Flames (Picador)
Vicki Feaver The Book of Blood (Cape)
Seamus Heaney District and Circle (Faber)
Robin Robertson Swithering (Picador)
Penelope Shuttle Redgrove’s Wife (Bloodaxe)

Best First Collection

Tishani Doshi Countries of the Body (Aark Arts)
Bill Greenwell Impossible Objects (Cinnamon Press)
Ian Gregson Call Centre Love Song (Salt)
Anne Ryland Autumnologist (Arrowhead Press)
Tim Turnbull Stranded in Sub-Atomica (Donut Press)
Tim Wells Boys’ Night Out in the Afternoon (Donut Press)

Best Single Poem

John Hartley Williams ‘Requiem for a Princess’ (London Review of Books)
John Kinsella ‘Forest Encomia of the South-West’ (WW Norton & Co)
Sean O’Brien ‘Fantasia on a Theme of James Wright’ (The Poetry Review)
Jacob Polley ‘The Cheapjack’ (The Poetry Review)
Fiona Sampson ‘Trumpeldor Beach (The Wolf)
Michael Arnold Williams ‘Blaenafon Blue’ (Poetry Wales)

2005
Best Collection

David Harsent Legion (Faber & Faber)
John Burnside The Good Neighbour (Cape Poetry)
Alan Jenkins A Shorter Life (Chatto & Windus)
Alice Oswald Woods Etc. (Faber & Faber)
John Stammers Stolen Love Behaviour (Picador)

Best First Collection

Helen Farish Intimates (Cape Poetry)
Nick Laird To a Fault (Faber & Faber)
Richard Price Lucky Day (Carcanet)
James Sheard Scattering Eva (Cape Poetry)
Jane Yeh Marabou (Carcanet)

Best Single Poem

Paul Farley ‘Liverpool Disappears for a Billionth of a Second’ (The North)
Stephen Knight ’99 Poems’ (The Poetry Review)
Sarah Maguire ‘Passages’ (Irish Pages)
Katherine Pierpoint ‘Buffalo Calf’ (Poetry London)
Peter Scupham ‘Seventy Years a Showman’ (The Rialto)

2004
Best Collection

Kate Clanchy Newborn (Picador)
Kathleen Jamie The Tree House (Picador)
August Kleinzahler The Strange Hours Travelers Keep (Faber and Faber)
Michael Longley Snow Water (Jonathan Cape)
Michael Symmons Roberts Corpus (Jonathan Cape)

Best First Collection

Leontia Flynn These Days (Jonathan Cape)
Kathryn Gray The Never-Never (Seren)
Matthew Hollis Ground Water (Bloodaxe Books)
Carola Luther Walking the Animals (Carcanet Press)
Jacob Polley The Brink (Picador)

Best Single Poem

David Constantine ‘Trilobite in the Wenlock Shales’ (Poetry London)
Vona Groarke ‘The Local Accent’ (Metre)
Robert Minhinnick ‘The Castaway’ (PN Review)
Daljit Nagra ‘Look We Have Coming to Dover!’ (Poetry Review)
Mario Susko ‘Conversation’ (Dream Catcher Literary Arts)

2003
Best Collection

Ciaran Carson Breaking News (Gallery Press)
Billy Collins Nine Horses (Picador)
Ian Duhig The Lammas Hireling (Picador)
Lavinia Greenlaw Minsk (Faber and Faber)
Paul Muldoon Moy Sand and Gravel (Faber and Faber)

Best First Collection

Rhian Gallagher Salt Water Creek (Enitharmon Press)
A B Jackson Fire Stations (Anvil Press)
John McAuliffe A Better Life (Gallery Press)
Jane Routh Circumnavigation (Smith/Doorstep Books)
Sarah Wardle Fields Away (Bloodaxe Books)

Best Single Poem

Judi Benson ‘Burying The Ancestors’ (Acumen)
David Constantine ‘Submerged Suite’ (Dreamcatcher Books)
Jean Harrison ‘Woman on the Moon’ (The North)
Robert Minhinnick ‘The Fox in the National Museum of Wales’ (Poetry London)

2002
Best Collection

Paul Farley The Ice Age (Picador)
John Fuller Now and for a Time (Chatto & Windus)
Vona Groarke Flight (The Gallery Press)
David Harsent Marriage (Faber and Faber)
Peter Porter Max is Missing (Picador)

Best First Collection

Chris Considine Swaledale Sketchbook (Smith/Doorstop Books)
Tom French Touching the Bones (The Gallery Press)
Stuart Pickford The Basics (Redbeck Press)
Henry Shukman In Dr No’s Garden (Cape Poetry)
Julian Turner Crossing the Outskirts (Anvil Press Poetry)

Best Single Poem

Jane Draycott ‘No 3 from Uses for the Thames’ (The Waterlog)
Ian Duhig ‘Rosary’ (Poetry London)
Medbh McGuckian ‘She is in the Past, She has this Grace’ (The Shop)
Carol Rumens ‘The Submerged Cathedral’ (Poetry London)

2001
Best Collection

Anne Carson The Beauty of the Husband (Jonathan Cape)
Douglas Dunn The Year’s Afternoon (Faber and Faber)
Matthew Francis Dragons (Faber and Faber)
James Lasdun Landscape with Chainsaw (Jonathan Cape)
Sean O’Brien Downriver (Picador)

Best First Collection

Andrew McNeillie Nevermore (Carcanet/Oxford Poets)
Caitriona O’Reilly The Nowhere Birds (Bloodaxe Books)
Catherine Smith The New Bride (Smith/Doorstep Books)
John Stammers Panoramic Lounge Bar (Picador)
Greta Stoddart At Home in the Dark (Anvil)

Best Single Poem

Allan Crosbie ‘The House Swap’ (The Interpreter’s House)
Ian Duhig ‘The Lammas Hireling’ (National Poetry Competition)
Alan Jenkins ‘Three Piece Suite’ (Agenda)
Robert Seatter ‘Army Sewing Kit’ (The Tabla Book of New Verse 2001)
Henry Shukman ‘Piano Solo’ (The Tabla Book of New Verse 2001)

2000
Best Collection

John Burnside The Asylum Dance (Cape Poetry)
Michael Donaghy Conjure (Picador)
Douglas Dunn The Donkey’s Ears (Faber and Faber)
Kathleen Jamie Jizzen (Picador)
Matthew Sweeney A Smell of Fish (Cape Poetry)

Best First Collection

Colette Bryce The Heel of Bernadette (Picador)
Brian Henry Astronaut (Arc)
Joanne Limburg Femenismo (Bloodaxe Books)
Owen Sheers The Blue Book (Seren)
Andrew Waterhouse In (The Rialto)

Best Single Poem

Tessa Biddigton ‘The Death of Descartes’ (The Bridport Prize)
Robert Hamberger ‘Die Bravely’ (Acumen)
Ruth Padel ‘Cascavel’ (PN Review)
Pascale Petit ‘The Strait-Jackets’ (The Rialto)
Charles Simic ‘Past-Lives Therapy’ (London Review of Books)

1999
Best Collection

Kate Clanchy Samarkand (Picador)
Jane Draycott Prince Rupert’s Drop (Oxford University Press)
Carol Ann Duffy The World’s Wife (Picador)

Best First Collection

Matthew Caley Thirst (Slow Dancer Poetry)
Amanda Dalton How to Disappear (Bloodaxe Books)
Nick Drake The Man in the White Suit (Bloodaxe Books)
Christopher North A Mesh of Wires (Smith/Doorstop Books)
Christiana Whitehead The Garden of Slender Trust (Bloodaxe Books)

Best Single Poem

Caroline Carver ‘Horse Under Water’ (National Poetry Competition)
Robert Crawford ‘Zero’ (Poetry Review)
Robert Minhinnick ‘Twenty-five Laments for Iraq’ (PN Review)
George Szirtes ‘Backwaters:Norfolk Fields’ (The Rialto)
R S Thomas ‘Blackbird’ (Agenda)

1998
Best Collection

Anne Carson Glass and God (Cape Poetry)
Ted Hughes Birthday Letters (Faber and Faber)
Gwyneth Lewis Zero Gravity (Bloodaxe Books)
Derek Mahon The Yellow Book (Gallery Books)
Glyn Maxwell The Breakage (Faber and Faber)

Best First Collection

Olivia Byard From a Benediction (Peterloo Poets)
Sarah Corbett The Red Wardrobe (Seren)
Paul Farley The Boy from the Chemist is Here to See You (Picador)
Jean Sprackland Tattoos for Mothers Day (Spike)
David Wheatley Thirst (Gallery Books)

Best Single Poem

Douglas Dunn ‘A European Dream’ (Times Literary Supplement)
Paul Muldoon ‘Aftermath’ (The Sunday Times)
Peter Porter ‘Basta Sangue’ (Times Literary Supplement)
Sheenagh Pugh ‘Envying Owen Beattie’ (New Welsh Review)
Lesley Saunders ‘The Uses of Greek’ (The Rialto)

1997
Best Collection

Selima Hill Violet (Bloodaxe Books)
Ted Hughes Tales From Ovid (Faber and Faber)
Jamie McKendrick The Marble Fly (Oxford University Press)
Andrew Motion Salt Water (Faber and Faber)
Susan Wicks The Clever Daughter (Faber and Faber)
CK Williams The Vigil (Bloodaxe Books)

Best First Collection

Jane Draycott No Theatre (Smith/Doorstop Books)
Matthew Francis Blizzard (Faber and Faber)
Tracey Herd No Hiding Place (Bloodaxe Books)
Roddy Lumsden Yeah Yeah Yeah (Bloodaxe Books)
Robin Robertson A Painted Field (Picador)

Best Single Poem

Harry Clifton ‘God in France’ (Poetry Review)
Lavinia Greenlaw ‘A World Where News Travelled Slowly’ (Times Literary Supplement)
David Harsent ‘The Makers’ (London Review of Books)
Craig Raine ‘Rashomon: The Opera’ (The Sunday Times)
Carol Rumens ‘A Day in the Life of Farmer Dream’ (Tabla Issue 6)

1996
Best Collection

Charles Boyle Paleface (Faber and Faber)
U A Fanthorpe Safe as Houses (Peterloo Poets)
John Fuller Stones and Fires (Chatto)
Seamus Heaney The Spirit Level (Faber and Faber)
W N Herbert Cabaret McGonagall (Bloodaxe Books)

Best First Collection

Kate Clanchy Slattern (Chatto)
Julia Copus The Shuttered Eye (Bloodaxe Books)
Alice Oswald The Thing in the Gap-Stone Stile (Oxford University Press)
Ian Pople The Glass Enclosure (Arc Publications)

Best Single Poem

Patricia Beer ‘Art History’ (London Review of Books)
David Constantine ‘Bombscare’ (Poetry Review)
Maura Dooley ‘The Message’ (The North)
Kathleen Jamie ‘The Graduates’ (Times Literary Supplement)
Les Murray ‘The Early Dark’ (The Rialto no 34)

1995
Best Collection

Simon Armitage The Dead Sea Poems (Faber and Faber)
Sujata Bhatt The Stinking Rose (Carcanet Press)
Iain Crichton Smith Ends and Beginnings (Carcanet Press)
Sean O’Brien Ghost Train (Oxford University Press)
R.S. Thomas No Truce with the Furies (Bloodaxe Books)

Best First Collection

Jane Duran Breathe Now, Breathe (Enitharmon Press)
Maggie Hannan Liar, Jones (Bloodaxe Books)
Gwyneth Lewis Parables and Faxes (Bloodaxe Books)
Justin Quinn The ‘O’o’a’a’ Bird (Carcanet Press)
Deryn Rees-Jones The Memory Tray (Seren 1994)

Best Single Poem

Sally Baker Fake ‘Leopardskin Coat’ (The North 15)
Seamus Heaney ‘Mycenae Lookout’ (Times Literary Supplement)
Tobias Hill ‘The City of Clocks’ (Tabla)
Jenny Joseph ‘In Honour of Love’ (The Rialto)
Les Murray ‘The Shield-Scales of Heraldry’ (Times Literary Supplement)

1994
Best Collection

Eavan Boland In a Time of Violence (Carcanet Press)
Vicki Feaver The Handless Maiden (Jonathan Cape)
Kathleen Jamie The Queen of Sheba (Bloodaxe Books)
Alan Jenkins Harm (Chatto & Windus)
Paul Muldoon The Annals of Chile (Faber and Faber)
Paul Muldoon Metamorphoses, Book VI, l.313-81 (Faber and Faber)

Best First Collection

Fergus Allen The Brown Parrots of Providencia (Faber and Faber)
Kwame Dawes Progeny of Air (Peepal Tree Press)
Lavinia Greenlaw Night Photograph (Faber and Faber)
Conor O’Callaghan The History of Rain (Gallery Press)

Best Single Poem

Robert Crawford ‘The Numties’ (Poetry Review)
M.R. Peacocke ‘Tango’ (Peterloo Poets Open Poetry Competition)
Robin Robertson ‘The Flaying of Marsyas’ (London Review of Books)
Iain Crichton Smith ‘Autumn’ (PN Review)
Gillian Stoneham ‘Elephants’ (The PHRAS 94 Open Poetry Competition Winner)

1993
Best Collection

Carol Ann Duffy Mean Time (Anvil)

Best First Collection

Don Paterson Nil Nil (Faber & Faber)

Best Single Poem

Vicki Feaver ‘Judith’ (Independent on Sunday)

1992
Best Collection

Thom Gunn The Man with the Night Sweats (Faber & Faber)

Best First Collection

Simon Armitage Kid (Faber & Faber)

Best Single Poem

Jackie Kay ‘The Adoption Papers’ (Bloodaxe Books)