Forward Prizes for Poetry

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.

Forward Prizes for Poetry
Awarded for	Best Collection (£10,000); Best First Collection (£5,000); Best Single Poem (£1,000)
Sponsored by	Forward Worldwide, Arts Council England, The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, The estate of Felix Dennis
Date	1992
Location	United Kingdom

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 celebrated their 30th anniversary in 2021. For the 2023 prizes, a new category for outstanding performance of a poem was added to the list of awards.^[1]

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.^[2]

Previous winners

Best Collection

Forward Prizes for Best Poetry Collection

Year	Author	Title	Publisher	Ref.
1992	Thom Gunn	The Man with Night Sweats	Faber and Faber
1993	Carol Ann Duffy	Mean Time	Anvil Press Poetry
1994	Alan Jenkins	Harm	Chatto & Windus
1995	Sean O'Brien	Ghost Train	Oxford University Press	[3]
1996	John Fuller	Stones and Fires	Chatto & Windus
1997	Jamie McKendrick	The Marble Fly	Oxford University Press
1998	Ted Hughes	Birthday Letters	Faber and Faber
1999	Jo Shapcott	My Life Asleep	Oxford University Press
2000	Michael Donaghy	Conjure	Picador
2001	Sean O'Brien	Downriver	Picador	[3]
2002	Peter Porter	Max is Missing	Picador
2003	Ciaran Carson	Breaking News	Gallery Press
2004	Kathleen Jamie	The Tree House	Picador	[4]
2005	David Harsent	Legion	Faber and Faber	[5][6]
2006	Robin Robertson	Swithering	Picador	[7]
2007	Sean O'Brien	The Drowned Book	Picador	[3]
2008	Mick Imlah	The Lost Leader	Faber and Faber	[8]
2009	Don Paterson	Rain	Faber and Faber	[9]
2010	Seamus Heaney	Human Chain	Faber and Faber	[10]
2011	John Burnside	Black Cat Bone	Jonathan Cape	[11]
2012	Jorie Graham	PLACE	Carcanet Press	[12]
2013	Michael Symmons Roberts	Drysalter	Cape Poetry	[13]
2014	Kei Miller	The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion	Carcanet Press	[14]
2015	Claudia Rankine	Citizen: An American Lyric	Penguin Books	[15]
2016	Vahni Capildeo	Measures of Expatriation	Carcanet Press	[16][17][18]
2017	Sinéad Morrissey	On Balance	Carcanet Press	[19]
2018	Danez Smith	Don't Call Us Dead	Chatto & Windus	[20][21]
2019	Fiona Benson	Vertigo and Ghost	Cape Poetry	[22][23]
2020	Caroline Bird	The Air Year	Carcanet Press	[24][25]
2021	Luke Kennard	Notes on the Sonnets	Penned in the Margins	[26][27]
2022	Kim Moore	All the Men I Never Married	Seren Books	[28][29]
2023	Jason Allen-Paisant	Self-Portrait as Othello	Carcanet Press	[30]
2024	Victoria Chang	With My Back to the World	Corsair	[31]

Best First Collection

Forward Prizes for Best First Poetry Collection

Year	Author	Title	Publisher	Ref.
1992	Simon Armitage	Kid	Faber and Faber
1993	Don Paterson	Nil Nil	Faber and Faber
1994	Kwame Dawes	Progeny of Air	Peepal Tree Press
1995	Jane Duran	Breathe Now, Breathe	Enitharmon Press
1996	Alice Oswald	The Thing in the Gap Stone Stile	Faber and Faber
1997	Robin Robertson	A Painted Field	Picador
1998	Paul Farley	The Boy from the Chemist is Here to See You	Picador
1999	Nick Drake	The Man in the White Suit	Bloodaxe Books
2000	Andrew Waterhouse	In	The Rialto
2001	John Stammers	The Panoramic Lounge Bar	Picador
2002	Tom French	Touching the Bones	The Gallery Press
2003	A. B. Jackson	Fire Stations	Anvil Press Poetry
2004	Leontia Flynn	These Days	Jonathan Cape
2005	Helen Farish	Intimates	Jonathan Cape
2006	Tishani Doshi	Countries of the Body	Aark Arts
2007	Daljit Nagra	Look We Have Coming to Dover!	Faber and Faber	[8]
2008	Kathryn Simmonds	Sunday at the Skin Launderette	Seren Books
2009	Emma Jones	The Striped World	Faber and Faber
2010	Hilary Menos	Berg	Seren Books
2011	Rachael Boast	Sidereal	Picador
2012	Sam Riviere	81 Austerities		[12]
2013	Emily Berry	Dear Boy	Faber and Faber
2014	Liz Berry	Black Country	Chatto & Windus
2015	Mona Arshi	Small Hands	Liverpool University Press
2016	Tiphanie Yanique	Wife	Peepal Tree Press	[18]
2017	Ocean Vuong	Night Sky with Exit Wounds	Jonathan Cape	[32]
2018	Phoebe Power	Shrines of Upper Austria	Carcanet Press	[20]
2019	Stephen Sexton	If All the World and Love Were Young	Penguin Books
2020	Will Harris	RENDANG	Granta	[24]
2021	Caleb Femi	Poor	Penguin Poetry	[26]
2022	Stephanie Sy-Quia	Amnion	Granta	[28]
2023	Momtaza Mehri	Bad Diaspora Poems	Jonathan Cape	[33]
2024	Marjorie Lotfi	The Wrong Person to Ask	Bloodaxe	[31]

Best Single Poem

Forward Prizes for Best Single Poetry

Year	Author	Title	Publication	Ref.
1992	Jackie Kay	"Black Bottom"
1993	Vicki Feaver	"Judith"
1994	Iain Crichton Smith	"Autumn"
1995	Jenny Joseph	"In Honour of Love"
1996	Kathleen Jamie	"The Graduates"
1997	Lavinia Greenlaw	"A World Where News Travelled Slowly"
1998	Sheenagh Pugh	"Envying Owen Beattie"
1999	Robert Minhinnick	"Twenty-five Laments for Iraq"
2000	Tessa Biddington	"The Death of Descartes"
2001	Ian Duhig	"The Lammas Hireling"
2002	Medbh McGuckian	"She is in the Past, She has this Grace"	The Shop
2003	Robert Minhinnick	"The Fox in the National Museum of Wales"	Poetry London
2004	Daljit Nagra	"Look We Have Coming to Dover!"	Poetry Review
2005	Paul Farley	"Liverpool Disappears for a Billionth of a Second"	The North
2006	Sean O'Brien	"Fantasia on a Theme of James Wright"	Poetry Review
2007	Alice Oswald	"Dunt"	Poetry London	[8]
2008	Don Paterson	"Love Poem for Natalie 'Tusja' Beridze"	Poetry Review
2009	Robin Robertson	"At Roane Head"
2010	Julia Copus	"An Easy Passage"
2011	R. F. Langley	"To a Nightingale"	London Review of Books
2012	Denise Riley	"A Part Song"		[12]
2013	Nick MacKinnon	"The Metric System"	The Warwick Review
2014	Stephen Santus	"In a Restaurant"	The Bridport Prize
2015	Claire Harman	"The Mighty Hudson"	TLS
2016	Sasha Dugdale	"Joy"	PN Review	[18]
2017	Ian Patterson	"The Plenty of Nothing"	PN Review	[34]
2018	Liz Berry	"The Republic of Motherhood"	Granta	[20]
2019	Parwana Fayyaz	"Forty Names"	PN Review
2020	Malika Booker	"The Little Miracles"	Magma	[24]
2021	Nicole Sealey	"Pages 22–29" an excerpt from The Ferguson Report: An Erasure	Poetry London	[26]
2022	Nick Laird	"Up Late"	Granta	[28]
2023	Malika Booker	"Libation"	Poetry Review	[35]

See also

• List of literary awards
• List of British literary awards
• English poetry
• List of poetry awards
• List of years in poetry
• List of years in literature

References

1. Creamer, Ella (30 June 2023). "Forward prizes for poetry add new award for performed poems". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
2. Forward Arts Foundation. Retrieved 4 July 2013.
3. Lea, Richard (3 October 2007). "O'Brien breaks poetry record". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 10 February 2023.
4. Crown, Sarah (6 October 2004). "Forward prize goes to Kathleen Jamie". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 10 February 2023.
5. Kennedy, Maev (12 January 2015). "David Harsent wins TS Eliot prize for poetry for Fire Songs". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 10 February 2023.
6. Crown, Sarah (6 October 2005). "Forward goes to David Harsent". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 10 February 2023.
7. Brown, Mark (5 October 2006). "Poet puts Heaney in shade by scooping £10,000 prize". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 10 February 2023.
8. Flood, Alison (8 October 2008). "Mick Imlah takes Forward prize after 20-year silence". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 10 February 2023.
9. Flood, Alison (7 October 2009). "Don Paterson wins the Forward poetry prize with 'masterful' collection". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 10 February 2023.
10. Page, Benedicte (6 October 2010). "Seamus Heaney wins £10k Forward poetry prize for Human Chain". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 10 February 2023.
11. Brown, Mark (5 October 2011). "John Burnside finally wins Forward poetry prize". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 10 February 2023.
12. Flood, Alison (1 October 2012). "Jorie Graham takes 2012 Forward prize". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
13. Higgins, Charlotte (1 October 2013). "Michael Symmons Roberts wins Forward poetry prize". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 10 February 2023.
14. Davies, Caroline (30 September 2014). "Kei Miller wins Forward poetry prize". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 June 2016.
15. Brown, Mark (28 September 2015). "Claudia Rankine's Citizen wins Forward poetry prize". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 June 2016.
16. Cain, Sian (21 September 2015). "Trinidadian poet Vahni Capildeo wins 2016 Forward prize for poetry". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
17. Roffey, Monique (3 May 2022). "'The pendulum has swung': Why we female Trinidadian writers are having our moment". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 10 February 2023.
18. "Forward prize, backward reading: who grumbles if white writers win awards?". The Guardian. 30 September 2016. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 10 February 2023.
19. "Forward Prizes of Poetry 2017 Winners". Forward Arts Foundation. 21 September 2017. Archived from the original on 2 October 2017. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
20. "Forward Prizes for Poetry 2018". Forward Prizes for Poetry. Retrieved 22 September 2018.
21. Flood, Alison (18 September 2018). "Danez Smith becomes youngest winner of Forward poetry prize". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 10 February 2023.
22. Higgins, Charlotte (25 October 2019). "Forward prize winner Fiona Benson: 'It's still taboo to talk about rape and women's bodies'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 10 February 2023.
23. Hay, Emily (20 October 2019). "Fiona Benson wins Forward prize with Greek myth poems for #MeToo age". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 10 February 2023.
24. "Bird's 'The Air Year' wins Forward Poetry Prize". Books+Publishing. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
25. Cain, Sian (25 October 2020). "Forward poetry prize goes to 'audacious, erotically charged' The Air Year". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 10 February 2023.
26. Bayley, Sian (25 October 2021). "Kennard, Femi and Sealey win Forward Prizes for Poetry". The Bookseller. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
27. Flood, Alison (24 October 2021). "Luke Kennard wins Forward poetry prize for 'anarchic' response to Shakespeare". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 10 February 2023.
28. "Forward Prizes for Poetry 2022 Winners". National Poetry Library. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
29. Shaffi, Sarah (28 November 2022). "Kim Moore wins Forward poetry prize for 'phenomenal' poems about everyday sexism". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 10 February 2023.
30. Poetry Book Society. "ANNOUNCING THE WINNERS OF THE FORWARD PRIZES 2023".
31. "2024 Forward Prizes for Poetry winners announced". Books+Publishing. 15 October 2024. Retrieved 16 October 2024.
32. Tristram Fane Saunders (21 September 2017). "Vietnamese refugee Ocean Vuong wins 2017 Forward Prize for Poetry". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 21 December 2023. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
33. Poetry Book Society. "ANNOUNCING THE WINNERS OF THE FORWARD PRIZES 2023".
34. Flood, Alison (21 September 2017). "Husband's elegy for Jenny Diski wins Forward prize for best single poem". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 10 February 2023.
35. Poetry Society. "Poetry Review poem by Malika Booker wins major award at Forward Prize 2023 announcements".

External links

• Official website