The Forward Prizes for Poetry are major British awards for poetry, presented annually at a public ceremony in London. They were founded in 1992 by William Sieghart with the aim of celebrating excellence in poetry and increasing its audience. The prizes do this by identifying and honouring talent: collections published in the UK and Ireland over the course of the previous year are eligible, as are single poems nominated by journal editors or prize organisers. Each year, works shortlisted for the prizes – plus those highly commended by the judges – are collected in the ''Forward Book of Poetry''.
The awards have been sponsored since their inception by the content marketing agency Bookmark, formerly Forward Worldwide. The best first collection prize is sponsored by the estate of Felix Dennis.
The Forward Prizes for Poetry will celebrate their 30th anniversary in 2021.
Awards
The Forward Prizes for Poetry consist of three awards:
*The Forward Prize for Best Collection, £10,000
*The Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection, £5,000
*The Forward Prize for Best Single Poem in memory of Michael Donaghy, £1,000
The Prizes are run by the Forward Arts Foundation, which is also responsible for National Poetry Day. The executive director of the Forward Arts Foundation is Susannah Herbert.Forward Arts Foundation. Retrieved 4 July 2013.
Previous winners
Best Collection
* 2022: Kim Moore, ''All the Men I Never Married'' ( Seren Books)
* 2021: Luke Kennard, ''Notes on the Sonnets'' (Penned in the Margins)
* 2020:
Caroline Bird
Caroline Bird (born 1986) is a British poet, playwright and author.
Life
Caroline Bird was born in 1986. Daughter of Jude Kelly, she grew up in Leeds, England, and attended the Steiner School in York and the Lady Eleanor Holles School before ...
Cape Poetry
A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment which drapes the wearer's back, arms, and chest, and connects at the neck.
History
Capes were common in medieval Europe, especially when combined with a hood in the chaperon. Th ...
Chatto & Windus
Chatto & Windus is an imprint of Penguin Random House that was formerly an independent book publishing company founded in London in 1855 by John Camden Hotten. Following Hotten's death, the firm would reorganize under the names of his busines ...
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a British publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.Kei Miller, ''The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion'' (
Carcanet
Carcanet Press is a publisher, primarily of poetry, based in the United Kingdom and founded in 1969 by Michael Schmidt.
In 2000 it was named the ''Sunday Times'' millennium Small Publisher of the Year.
History
''Carcanet'' was originally a li ...
Cape Poetry
A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment which drapes the wearer's back, arms, and chest, and connects at the neck.
History
Capes were common in medieval Europe, especially when combined with a hood in the chaperon. Th ...
Jonathan Cape
Jonathan Cape is a London publishing firm founded in 1921 by Herbert Jonathan Cape, who was head of the firm until his death in 1960.
Cape and his business partner Wren Howard set up the publishing house in 1921. They established a reputation ...
)
* 2010:
Seamus Heaney
Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.
, ''Human Chain'' (
Faber and Faber
Faber and Faber Limited, usually abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, Margaret Storey, William Golding, Samuel ...
)
* 2009:
Don Paterson
Donald Paterson (born 1963) is a Scottish poet, writer and musician.
Background
Don Paterson was born in Dundee, Scotland, in 1963. He won an Eric Gregory Award in 1990 and his poem "A Private Bottling" won the Arvon Foundation Internatio ...
, ''Rain'' (Faber and Faber)
* 2008: Mick Imlah, ''The Lost Leader'' (Faber and Faber)
* 2007: Sean O'Brien, ''The Drowned Book'' (Picador)
* 2006: Robin Robertson, ''Swithering'' (
Picador
A ''picador'' (; pl. ''picadores'') is one of the pair of horse-mounted bullfighters in a Spanish-style bullfight that jab the bull with a lance. They perform in the ''tercio de varas'', which is the first of the three stages in a stylized bullf ...
)
* 2005:
David Harsent
David Harsent (born in Devon) is an English poet who for some time earned his living as a TV scriptwriter and crime novelist.
Background
During his early career he was part of a circle of poets centred on Ian Hamilton and forming something of ...
, ''Legion'' (Faber and Faber)
* 2004: Kathleen Jamie, ''The Tree House'' (Picador)
* 2003:
Ciarán Carson
Ciaran Gerard Carson (9 October 1948 – 6 October 2019) was a Northern Ireland-born poet and novelist.
Biography
Ciaran Carson was born in Belfast into an Irish-speaking family. His father, William, was a postman and his mother, Mary, wo ...
, ''Breaking News'' (
Gallery Press
Gallery Press is an independent Irish publishing company, publishing Irish poetry, drama, and prose by contemporary Irish writers. Founded by poet Peter Fallon as the Gallery Books imprint of Tara Telephone Publications, itself an offshoot of a ...
Jo Shapcott
Jo Shapcott FRSL (born 24 March 1953, London) is an English poet, editor and lecturer who has won the National Poetry Competition, the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, the Costa Book of the Year Award, a Forward Poetry Prize and the Cholmondeley ...
, ''My Life Asleep'' (
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...
)
* 1998:
Ted Hughes
Edward James "Ted" Hughes (17 August 1930 – 28 October 1998) was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest wri ...
Chatto & Windus
Chatto & Windus is an imprint of Penguin Random House that was formerly an independent book publishing company founded in London in 1855 by John Camden Hotten. Following Hotten's death, the firm would reorganize under the names of his busines ...
)
* 1995: Sean O'Brien, ''Ghost Train'' (Oxford University Press)
* 1994: Alan Jenkins, ''Harm'' (Chatto & Windus)
* 1993:
Carol Ann Duffy
Dame Carol Ann Duffy (born 23 December 1955) is a Scottish poet and playwright. She is a professor of contemporary poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University, and was appointed Poet Laureate in May 2009, resigning in 2019. She was the first ...
Thom Gunn
Thomson William "Thom" Gunn (29 August 1929 – 25 April 2004) was an English poet who was praised for his early verses in England, where he was associated with The Movement, and his later poetry in America, even after moving towards a looser, ...
, ''The Man with Night Sweats'' (Faber and Faber)
Best First Collection
* 2022: Stephanie Sy-Quia: ''Amnion'' (
Granta Books
''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and ma ...
Granta Books
''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and ma ...
)
* 2019: Stephen Sexton, ''If All the World and Love Were Young'' (
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a British publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.Phoebe Power, ''Shrines of Upper Austria'' ( Carcanet Press)
* 2017: Ocean Vuong, '' Night Sky with Exit Wounds'' (
Jonathan Cape
Jonathan Cape is a London publishing firm founded in 1921 by Herbert Jonathan Cape, who was head of the firm until his death in 1960.
Cape and his business partner Wren Howard set up the publishing house in 1921. They established a reputation ...
Liverpool University Press
Liverpool University Press (LUP), founded in 1899, is the third oldest university press in England after Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press. As the press of the University of Liverpool, it specialises in modern languages, ...
Emily Berry
Emily Berry (born 1981) is an English poet and writer.
Emily Berry was born and raised in London and studied English literature at Leeds University, and Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths College. She is currently completing a PhD in Cre ...
, ''Dear Boy ''(Faber and Faber)
* 2012:
Sam Riviere
Sam Riviere (born 1981) is an English poet and publisher.
Education and career
Riviere was educated at Norwich School of Art and Design and completed a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia in 2013. While at art school, Ri ...
Kathryn Simmonds
Kathryn Simmonds (born 1972 Hertfordshire) is a British poet, and short story writer.
Life
She graduated from the University of East Anglia with an MA in Creative Writing.
She has also experimented with playwriting, and her first radio play Po ...
, ''Sunday at the Skin Launderette'' (Seren Books)
* 2007: Daljit Nagra, ''Look We Have Coming to Dover!'' (Faber and Faber)
* 2006: Tishani Doshi, ''Countries of the Body'' (Aark Arts)
* 2005: Helen Farish, ''Intimates'' (Jonathan Cape)
* 2004:
Leontia Flynn
Leontia Flynn (born December 1974) is a poet and writer from Northern Ireland. She grew up between the towns of Dundrum and Newcastle, County Down, Northern Ireland. She is the second-youngest of five siblings. She has worked at The Seamus Hean ...
, ''These Days'' (Jonathan Cape)
* 2003: A. B. Jackson, ''Fire Stations'' (Anvil Press)
* 2002: Tom French, ''Touching the Bones'' (The Gallery Press)
* 2001: John Stammers, ''The Panoramic Lounge Bar'' (Picador)
* 2000: Andrew Waterhouse, ''In'' ('' The Rialto'')
* 1999:
Nick Drake
Nicholas Rodney Drake (19 June 1948 – 25 November 1974) was an English singer-songwriter known for his acoustic guitar-based songs. He did not find a wide audience during his lifetime, but his work gradually achieved wider notice and recognit ...
, ''The Man in the White Suit'' (
Bloodaxe Books
Bloodaxe Books is a British publishing house specializing in poetry.
History
Bloodaxe Books was founded in 1978 in Newcastle upon Tyne by Neil Astley, who is still editor and managing director. Bloodaxe moved its editorial office to Northumb ...
)
* 1998:
Paul Farley
Paul Farley, FRSL (born 1965) is a British poet, writer and broadcaster.
Life and work
Farley was born in Liverpool. He studied painting at the Chelsea School of Art, and has lived in London, Brighton and Cumbria. His first collection of poet ...
, ''The Boy from the Chemist is Here to See You'' (Picador)
* 1997: Robin Robertson, ''A Painted Field'' (Picador)
* 1996: Kate Clanchy, ''Slattern'' (Picador)
* 1995:
Jane Duran
Jane Duran, born , is a Spanish-American poet, born in Cuba whilst her father was working as a diplomat in the country.
Background
Duran was born in Cuba to an American mother and a Spanish father, Gustavo Durán, who had fought with the Republ ...
, ''Breathe Now, Breathe'' (
Enitharmon Press
Enitharmon Press is an independent British publishing house specialising in artists’ books, poetry, limited editions and original prints.
The name of the press comes from the poetry of William Blake: Enitharmon was a character who represen ...
)
* 1994: Kwame Dawes, ''Progeny of Air'' (Peepal Tree Press)
* 1993:
Don Paterson
Donald Paterson (born 1963) is a Scottish poet, writer and musician.
Background
Don Paterson was born in Dundee, Scotland, in 1963. He won an Eric Gregory Award in 1990 and his poem "A Private Bottling" won the Arvon Foundation Internatio ...
, ''Nil Nil'' (Faber and Faber)
* 1992:
Simon Armitage
Simon Robert Armitage (born 26 May 1963) is an English poet, playwright, musician and novelist. He was appointed Poet Laureate on 10 May 2019. He is professor of poetry at the University of Leeds.
He has published over 20 collections of poetr ...
, ''Kid'' (Faber and Faber)
Best Single Poem
* 2022:
Nick Laird
Nicholas Laird (born 1975) is a Northern Irish novelist and poet.
Education
Laird was born in Cookstown, County Tyrone, where he attended the local comprehensive school. He then gained entry to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he initia ...
, "Up Late" (''Granta'')
* 2021:
Nicole Sealey
Nicole Sealey (born 1979) is an American poet who was born in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, and raised in Apopka, Florida, US. She is the former executive director of Cave Canem Foundation. She won the 2015 Drinking Gourd Chapbook Poetry Prize for ' ...
, "Pages 22–29, an excerpt from The Ferguson Report: An Erasure" (''
Poetry London
''Poetry London'' is a literary periodical based in London. Published three times a year, it features poems, reviews, and other articles.
Profile
Adopting the title of an earlier bimonthly publication which ran from 1939 to 1951, ''Poetry London' ...
Granta
''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and ma ...
TLS
TLS may refer to:
Computing
* Transport Layer Security, a cryptographic protocol for secure computer network communication
* Thread level speculation, an optimisation on multiprocessor CPUs
* Thread-local storage, a mechanism for allocating vari ...
'')
* 2014: Stephen Santus, "In a Restaurant" (The
Bridport Prize
Bridport Arts Centre is an arts centre in Bridport, Dorset, England. Founded in 1973, it is housed in and around a 19th-century, Grade II listed building, formerly known as the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel. The complex includes the Marlow Theatre, ...
)
* 2013: Nick MacKinnon, "The Metric System" (''The Warwick Review'')
* 2012: Denise Riley, "A Part Song"
* 2011: R. F. Langley, "To a Nightingale" (''
London Review of Books
The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published twice monthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews.
History
The ''London Review ...
Don Paterson
Donald Paterson (born 1963) is a Scottish poet, writer and musician.
Background
Don Paterson was born in Dundee, Scotland, in 1963. He won an Eric Gregory Award in 1990 and his poem "A Private Bottling" won the Arvon Foundation Internatio ...
Poetry London
''Poetry London'' is a literary periodical based in London. Published three times a year, it features poems, reviews, and other articles.
Profile
Adopting the title of an earlier bimonthly publication which ran from 1939 to 1951, ''Poetry London' ...
'')
* 2006: Sean O'Brien, "Fantasia on a Theme of James Wright" (''Poetry Review'')
* 2005:
Paul Farley
Paul Farley, FRSL (born 1965) is a British poet, writer and broadcaster.
Life and work
Farley was born in Liverpool. He studied painting at the Chelsea School of Art, and has lived in London, Brighton and Cumbria. His first collection of poet ...
, "Liverpool Disappears for a Billionth of a Second" (''The North'')
* 2004: Daljit Nagra, "Look We Have Coming to Dover!" (''Poetry Review'')
* 2003: Robert Minhinnick, "The Fox in the National Museum of Wales" (''Poetry London'')
* 2002: Medbh McGuckian, "She is in the Past, She has this Grac" (''The Shop'')
* 2001: Ian Duhig, "The Lammas Hireling"
* 2000:
Tessa Biddington
Tessa Biddington, (born 1954 in Pinner, north-west London) is a British poet.
Life
Biddington works as a freelance trainer, raising awareness about domestic violence. She began writing in 1996. Her poetry has appeared in '' The New Welsh Revi ...
, "The Death of Descartes"
* 1999: Robert Minhinnick, "Twenty-five Laments for Iraq"
* 1998: Sheenagh Pugh, "Envying Owen Beattie"
* 1997: Lavinia Greenlaw, "A World Where News Travelled Slowly"
* 1996: Kathleen Jamie, "The Graduates"
* 1995:
Jenny Joseph
Jenny Joseph (7 May 1932 – 15 April 2018) was an English poet, best known for the poem "Warning".
Early life and education
Jennifer Ruth Joseph was born on 7 May 1932 in South Hill, Carpenter Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham to Florence (née ...
English poetry
This article focuses on poetry from the United Kingdom written in the English language. The article does not cover poetry from other countries where the English language is spoken, including Republican Ireland after December 1922.
The earliest ...
List of years in literature
This article gives a chronological list of years in literature (descending order), with notable publications listed with their respective years and a small selection of notable events. The time covered in individual years covers Renaissance, Baro ...