Forward Prizes for Poetry

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2023 WINNERS

Best Collection: Jason Allen-Paisant, Self Portrait as Othello (Carcanet)

Best First Collection: Momtaza Mehri, Bad Diaspora Poems (Jonathan Cape)

Best Single Poem – Written: Malika Booker, ‘Libation’ (The Poetry Review)

Best Single Poem – Performed: Bohdan Piasecki, ‘Almost Certainly’

WINNER BEST COLLECTION

Jason Allen-Paisant
Self Portrait as Othello (Carcanet)

Jamaican writer and academic Jason Allen-Paisant collected the prize for Best Collection in Leeds, the city where he lives, for his seminal Self-Portrait as Othello (Carcanet).

‘An exhilarating and propulsive read that sweeps through several European cities that become subject to the black male gaze, changing what is seen and who is heard. Playful, intimate and allusive, these poems interrogate masculinity and history, experiment with the myth of Othello, mourn absent fathers, and offer us a refreshing mash-up of languages that regenerate poetry so that it feels freshly minted.’
Chair of Judges for the Best Collections panel, Bernardine Evaristo

WINNER BEST FIRST COLLECTION

Momtaza Mehri
Bad Diaspora Poems (Jonathan Cape)

Former Young People’s Laureate of London Momtaza Mehri was awarded the Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection for her critically acclaimed Bad Diaspora Poems (Jonathan Cape)

‘An exceptional debut collection that reinvigorates ideas around diaspora, migration and home. Wide-ranging and ambitious, her poetry shimmers with erudition and linguistic exquisiteness, while also having an emotional heart. Drawing on global cultures, Mehri is a truly transnational poet of the twenty-first century whose words pulsate out into the world-at-large.’
Chair of Judges for the Best Collections panel, Bernardine Evaristo

WINNER BEST SINGLE POEM – WRITTEN

 Malika Booker
‘Libation’ (The Poetry Review)

Malika Booker, also based in Leeds, has became the first woman to win the Best Single Poem – Written category twice, first in 2020, and this year for ‘Libation’, originally published in The Poetry Review.

‘Malika’s piece reads like a drink. A slow pour of linguistic libation that funnels the reader down into the depths of ritual, grief, culture and society. It works hard to tread so lightly and holds all of this with tenderness and love.’
2023 judge Chris Redmond

WINNER BEST SINGLE POEM – PERFORMED

Bohdan Piasecki
‘Almost Certainly’

Polish-born, Birmingham-based performer and professor Bohdan Piasecki became the inaugural winner of the widely celebrated new category Best Single Poem – Performed, for his moving exploration of Polish and British communities in ‘Almost Certainly’.

‘Bohdan’s poem is not only moving and meticulously crafted, his performance of it is electric. It’s a great example of how many things come into play for “performance poetry” to be more than a recitation. It’s the combination of physical and emotional presence, connection with the audience, command over voice, pace, dynamic range, and sensitivity at all times, to the poem itself.’
2023 judge Chris Redmond