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2021 Forward Prize Winners
Congratulations to the 2021 winners:
Best Collection: Luke Kennard, Notes on the Sonnets
Best First Collection: Caleb Femi, Poor
Best Single Poem: Nicole Sealey, ‘Pages 22-29, An excerpt from The Ferguson Report: An Erasure’
Forward Prize for Best Collection 2021 (£10,000)
A Blood Condition
(Chatto and Windus)
A God at the Door
(Bloodaxe Books)
Men Who Feed Pigeons
(Bloodaxe Books)
Notes on the Sonnets
(Penned in the Margins)
Cheryl’s Destinies
(Penguin Poetry)
Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection 2021 (£5,000)
Poor
(Penguin Poetry)
Bird of Winter
(Pavilion Poetry)
Honorifics
(Nine Arches Press)
Comic Timing
(Granta Poetry)
Rotten Days in Late Summer
(Penguin Poetry)
Forward Prize for Best Single Poem 2021 (£1,000)
‘Androgeus’
(Times Literary Supplement)
‘Middle Name with Diacritics’
(National Poetry Competition)
‘Flower of Sulphur’
(Poetry London)
‘1948’
(Poetry Ireland Review)
‘Pages 22-29, An excerpt from The Ferguson Report: An Erasure’
(Poetry London)
‘We know that the year – and more – of the pandemic was also the year of reading. It was a time when everyone was reminded how much we need to be exposed to the power of the imagination. And the shortlists for the Forward Prizes 2021 are a reminder that the poetic imagination isn’t wholly introspective, although it cuts deep. It’s bold, limitless in ambition and it touches every part of our lives – our own hopes and fears, our communities, and the wider world that so often seems bewildering and over-powering. These poets find pathways into the deepest feelings and discover vantage points that take a reader (or a listener) to another place. In their hands we look at the world differently. This is a moment for poetry; and all these poets deliver. Read them, and take off.’
‘– James Naughtie, Chair of the 2021 Forward Prizes jury
Judges
Judges for the Forward Prizes for Poetry 2021 were broadcaster, journalist and writer Jim Naughtie, Chair of Judges, and poets Leontia Flynn, Pascale Petit, and Shivanee Ramlochan, and critic Tristam Fane Saunders.
The Forward Book of Poetry 2022
THE FORWARD BOOK OF POETRY 2022
This is a moment for poetry. This is the best poetry of this moment.
The judges of the Forward Prizes – poets Leontia Flynn, Shivanee Ramlochan and Pascale Petit and poetry critic Tristram Fane Saunders, chaired by broadcaster and writer James Naughtie – have selected the finest works published in the UK and Ireland. The Forward Book of Poetry 2022 features the best work taken from new collections and literary journals.
This anthology offers a unique insight into a pandemic world and how we make sense of the continuing uncertainty around us. It is required reading for those who love poetry as well as the perfect spur for those who wish to experience poetry’s power to illuminate, challenge and connect – even in troubling times.
Sponsors
Since its inception in 1992, the Forward Prizes for Poetry have been supported by Bookmark, the global content marketing and communications agency. It is with their unstinting support that we have been able to shortlist 310 poets over the past 30 years, championed excellence in poetry and reached thousands of school students with Forward Prize Books and activities.
The Forward Prizes are also grateful to the literary estate of the late Felix Dennis, the Garfield Weston Foundation, Arts Council England and a number of individual donors.
