The Forward Poetry prizes were created in 1991 to bring contemporary poetry to a wider audience. Known as the 'bardic booker', this annual poetry competition is the only major award that honours both established and up-and-coming poets.

Winners of the Prize

How to Enter

Launched in 1994, National Poetry Day has become an established fixture on the cultural calendar. It celebrates and promotes poetry all over Britain making it more accessible to all.

Look out for a wide variety events, from recitals in unusual places – at work, on station platforms, on the bus – to competitions and festivals across the country. Supported by the BBC, there’s also a range of popular programming on television and radio.

More Details

For annual anthologies of the best short listed poems, and Poems of the Decade, featuring 127 poets from ten years of the Forward Poetry Prize, visit Faber and Faber. The Forward anthologies include poems from each of the short listed collections and the five best single poems alongside poems that are highly recommended by the judges, from the submissions they read, including work by Colette Bryce, Michael Rosen, Jackie Kay, Carol Ann Duffy, Derek Walcott, Patrick McGuinness, R F Langley, Michael Mackmin, Esther Morgan, Peter Porter, John Hartley Williams, Geoffrey Hill, Julia Darling, Mazen Makkouk, Glyn Maxwell, Conor O’Callaghan, Sheenagh Pugh, Fiona Sampson, Peter Sirr, George Szirtes, Gerard Woodward, Anna Wigley, Sally Read, Anne Rouse and Tamar Yoseloff.'