Forward Prize shortlists announced

The high-profile poetry award shortlists were revealed today
‘This is a powerful year for poetry,’ said chair of judges Jeanette Winterson (pictured). ‘We made our choices looking for poems that used a lit-up
living language and had a sense of purpose.’ The Forward Prizes for Poetry shortlists are:
The Forward Prize for Best Collection (£10,000):
• Her Birth, Rebecca Goss (Carcanet/Northern House)
• Pluto, Glyn Maxwell (Picador Poetry)
• Parallax, Sinead Morrisey (Carcanet)
• The Havocs, Jacob Polley (Picador Poetry)
• Drysalter, Michael Symmons Roberts (Cape Poetry)
The Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection (£5,000):
• Dear Boy, Emily Berry (Faber)
• She Inserts the Key, Marianne Burton (Seren)
• Oswald’s Book of Hours, Steve Ely (Smokestack Books)
• Chick, Hannah Lowe (Bloodaxe Books)
• War Reporter, Dan O’Brien (CB Editions)
• Accurate Measurements, Adam White (Doire Press)
The Forward Prize for Best Single Poem (£1,000):
• The Doll’s House, Patience Agbabi (Poetry Review)
• Explaining the Plot of Blade Runner to My Mother Who Has Alzheimers, C.J. Allen (Troubadour International Poetry Prize)
• The Metric System, Neil MacKinnon (The Warwick Review)
• A seedy narrative or moments of lyrical stillness?, Rosie Shepperd (Smith/Doorstep)
• From the Dialysis Ward, Hugo Williams (London Review of Books)
A young judges scheme is to be introduced in September, inviting students at GCSE and A Level stages to write critiques of selected poems on the shortlists.
The winners will be awarded their prizes by Jeanette Winterson at the Southbank Centre on National Poetry Day on 1 October.

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