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Welcome to the Forward Prizes for Poetry
The Forward Prizes for Poetry honour excellence in contemporary poetry published in UK and Ireland.
There are three prizes: Best Collection (£10,000) and Best First Collection (£5,000) consider books of poetry, while Best Single Poem (£1,000) seeks the best poem from magazines and competitions.
The shortlists – below – were announced on 10 June 2020 and the winners will be revealed on 25 October 2020.
The chair of the 2020 Forward Prizes jury, writer, critic and social historian Alexandra Harris, said:
“Our shortlisted collections are rich in energy and surprise, intellectually agile, sensuous, made to last. There are transformative leaps of connection across centuries and continents. At a time when our lives are intensely local and global at once, these poets challenge us to think on many different scales: they ask what is large and small, move between intimate individual observation and chorus.”
Read reactions to the shortlist announcement in The Guardian and The Bookseller.
Forward Prize for Best Collection (£10,000)
The Air Year
(Carcanet)
Postcolonial Love Poem
(Faber & Faber)
I Want! I Want!
(Cape Poetry)
FURY
(Carcanet)
Tiger Girl
(Bloodaxe Books)
Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection (£5,000)
Shine, Darling
(Offord Road Books)
RENDANG
(Granta Poetry)
My Darling from the Lions
(Picador)
Magnolia 木蘭
(Nine Arches Press)
Citadel
(Pavilion Poetry)
Forward Prize for Best Single Poem (£1,000)
‘Mama Cockroach, I Love You’
(Poetry London)
‘The Little Miracles’
(Magma)
‘(Un)certainties’
(Mslexia & PBS Women’s Poetry Competition)
‘Nocturne for a Moving Train’
(The Poetry Review)
‘Dick pics’
(The Moth)
Forward Meet The Poet
Forward Meet The Poet is an online series featuring readings from the shortlisted books and the chance to ask the poets about their work.
The next event is Tuesday 4th August
Forward Meet The Poet – Vicki Feaver
Find out more and browse all Meet The Poet events.
Image credit: Chris Parks
Judging Panel
Leaf Arbuthnot, Kim Moore, Alexandra Harris (chair), Roger Robinson, David Wheatley | Image credits: Alex Harris – Vikki Beddoes
Writer, critic and social historian Alexandra Harris will chair the Forward Prizes for Poetry 2020 judging panel. She is joined by poets Kim Moore, Roger Robinson and David Wheatley, and journalist Leaf Arbuthnot. Read more about the judges.
Process
The Forward Prizes for Poetry welcomes submissions from the editors and publishers of books, magazines, online journals and competitions, published in the UK and Ireland. The submissions period runs January-March. Our five-strong panel of judges read all the books, and individual poem submissions, before selecting shortlists which are announced in June. The judges then reflect on the shortlists over the summer before announcing the winners in autumn, this year on Sunday 25 October 2020. You can find out more about the process and eligibility by reading our entry guidance and FAQs.
Sponsors
Since it’s 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 285 poets over the past 28 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 Esmée Fairburn Foundation, the John Ellerman Foundation and Arts Council England.
