Forward Poetry Prize
Encyclopedia
The Forward Poetry Prizes were created in 1991. The aim of the prizes is to extend the audience for contemporary poetry. Until the T.S. Eliot Prize remuneration was increased to £15,000 plus £1000 to each of nine runners-up, the Forward was the United Kingdom
's most valuable annual poetry competition, with awards for Best Collection (£10,000), Best First Collection (£5000) and Best Single Poem (£1000). Highly commended poems are published in the annual anthology, The Forward Book of Poetry.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
's most valuable annual poetry competition, with awards for Best Collection (£10,000), Best First Collection (£5000) and Best Single Poem (£1000). Highly commended poems are published in the annual anthology, The Forward Book of Poetry.
Best Collection
- 2011: John BurnsideJohn BurnsideJohn Burnside is a Scottish writer, born in Dunfermline.-Background:Burnside studied English and European Languages at Cambridge College of Arts and Technology. A former computer software engineer, he has been a freelance writer since 1996...
, Black Cat Bone (Jonathan Cape) - 2010: Seamus HeaneySeamus HeaneySeamus Heaney is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer. He lives in Dublin. Heaney has received the Nobel Prize in Literature , the Golden Wreath of Poetry , T. S. Eliot Prize and two Whitbread prizes...
, Human Chain (Faber) - 2009: Don PatersonDon PatersonDon Paterson, OBE, FRSL is a Scottish poet, writer and musician.-Background:Paterson was born in Dundee. He won an Eric Gregory Award in 1990 and his poem A Private Bottling won the Arvon Foundation International Poetry Competition in 1993. He was included on the list of 20 poets chosen for the...
, Rain (Faber) - 2008: Mick ImlahMick ImlahMichael Ogilvie Imlah , better known as Mick Imlah, was a Scottish poet and editor.-Background:Imlah was brought up in Milngavie near Glasgow, before moving to Beckenham, Kent in 1966. He was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he subsequently taught as a Junior Fellow...
, The Lost Leader (Faber) - 2007: Sean O'BrienSean O'Brien (writer)Sean O'Brien is a British poet, critic, playwright. Prizes he has garnered include the Eric Gregory Award , the Somerset Maugham Award , the Cholmondeley Award , the Forward Poetry Prize and the T. S. Eliot Prize...
, The Drowned Book (Picador) - 2006: Robin RobertsonRobin RobertsonRobin Robertson is a Scottish poet.-Biography:Robertson was brought up on the north-east coast of Scotland, but has spent most of his professional life in London...
, Swithering (Picador) - 2005: David HarsentDavid HarsentDavid Harsent is an English poet & TV scriptwriter. As Jack Curtis and David Lawrence he has published a number of crime fiction novels....
, Legion (Faber & Faber) - 2004: Kathleen JamieKathleen JamieKathleen Jamie FRSL is a Scottish poet, raised in Currie, Edinburgh. She gained an M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Edinburgh....
, The Tree House (Picador) - 2003: Ciarán CarsonCiaran CarsonCiaran Gerard Carson is a Belfast, Northern Ireland-born poet and novelist.-Early years:Ciaran Carson was born in Belfast into an Irish-speaking family...
, Breaking News (The Gallery Press) - 2002: Peter PorterPeter Porter (poet)Peter Neville Frederick Porter, OAM was a British-based Australian poet.-Life:Porter was born in Brisbane, Australia, in 1929. His mother, Marion, died of a burst gall-bladder in 1938. He attended the Church of England Grammar School and left school at 18, and went to work as a trainee journalist...
, Max is Missing (Picador) - 2001: Sean O'BrienSean O'Brien (writer)Sean O'Brien is a British poet, critic, playwright. Prizes he has garnered include the Eric Gregory Award , the Somerset Maugham Award , the Cholmondeley Award , the Forward Poetry Prize and the T. S. Eliot Prize...
, Downriver (Picador) - 2000: Michael DonaghyMichael DonaghyMichael Donaghy was an award-winning New York poet and musician, who lived in London from 1985.-Life and career:...
, Conjure (Picador) - 1999: Jo ShapcottJo ShapcottJo Shapcott FRSL, 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 Award.-Career:...
, My Life Asleep (Oxford University Press) - 1998: Ted HughesTed HughesEdward James Hughes OM , more commonly known as Ted Hughes, was an English poet and children's writer. Critics routinely rank him as one of the best poets of his generation. Hughes was British Poet Laureate from 1984 until his death.Hughes was married to American poet Sylvia Plath, from 1956 until...
, Birthday LettersBirthday LettersBirthday Letters, published in 1998, is a collection of poetry by English poet and children's writer Ted Hughes. Released only months before Hughes's death, the collection won multiple prestigious literary awards...
(Faber and Faber) - 1997: Jamie McKendrickJamie McKendrick-Poetry:McKendrick has published five collections of poetry.He is also the editor of The Faber Book of 20th-Century Italian Poems .-Awards:...
, The Marble Fly (Oxford University Press) - 1996: John FullerJohn Fuller (poet)John Fuller is an English poet and author, and Fellow Emeritus at Magdalen College, Oxford.Fuller was born in Ashford, Kent, England, the son of poet and Oxford Professor Roy Fuller, and educated at St Paul's School and New College, Oxford. He began teaching in 1962 at the State University of New...
, Stones and Fires (Chatto & Windus) - 1995: Sean O'BrienSean O'Brien (writer)Sean O'Brien is a British poet, critic, playwright. Prizes he has garnered include the Eric Gregory Award , the Somerset Maugham Award , the Cholmondeley Award , the Forward Poetry Prize and the T. S. Eliot Prize...
, Ghost Train (Oxford University Press) - 1994: Alan JenkinsAlan Jenkins (poet)-Life:He was brought up on the outskirts of London in Richmond, and educated at the University of Sussex, and has worked for the Times Literary Supplement since 1981, first as poetry and fiction editor, and then as deputy editor. He was also a poetry critic for The Observer, and the Sunday...
, Harm (Chatto & Windus) - 1993: Carol Ann DuffyCarol Ann DuffyCarol Ann Duffy, CBE, FRSL is a Scottish poet and playwright. She is Professor of Contemporary Poetry at the Manchester Metropolitan University, and was appointed Britain's poet laureate in May 2009...
, Mean Time (Anvil Press) - 1992: Thom GunnThom GunnThom Gunn, born Thomson William Gunn , was an Anglo-American poet who was praised both for his early verses in England, where he was associated with The Movement and his later poetry in America, even after moving toward a looser, free-verse style...
, The Man with Night Sweats (Faber and Faber)
Best First Collection
- 2011: Rachael Boast, Sidereal (Picador Poetry)
- 2010: Hilary MenosHilary MenosHillary Menos is an English poet, born in Luton in 1964. She studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Wadham College, Oxford, then worked as a food journalist and restaurant critic in London before moving to Devon to renovate a Domesday Manor...
, Berg (Seren) - 2009: Emma JonesEmma Jones (poet)Emma Jones is an Australian poet. Her first poetry collection, The Striped World, was published by Faber & Faber in 2009.Jones was raised in Concord, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney. Her father was Australian; her British mother had emigrated to Australia...
, The Striped World (Faber) - 2008: Kathryn SimmondsKathryn Simmonds-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 Poetry for Beginners, a comic drama set on a creative writing residential course, was broadcast on Radio 4 in 2008.She lives in London, England,...
, Sunday at the Skin Launderette (Seren) - 2007: Daljit NagraDaljit NagraDaljit Nagra is a British poet whose debut collection, Look We Have Coming to Dover! — a title alluding to W. H. Auden's Look, Stranger!, D. H. Lawrence's Look! We have come through! and by epigraph also to Matthew Arnold's 'Dover Beach' — was published by Faber in February 2007...
, Look We Have Coming to Dover! (Faber and Faber) - 2006: Tishani DoshiTishani DoshiTishani Doshi is an Indian poet, journalist and dancer based in Chennai. Born in Madras, India, to a Welsh mother and Gujarati father, she received an Eric Gregory Award in 2001. Her first poetry collection, Countries of the Body, won the 2006 Forward Poetry Prize for best first collection...
, Countries of the Body (Aark Arts) - 2005: Helen FarishHelen Farish-Life:She received her B.A. from University of Durham, M.A. and Ph.D. from Oxford Brookes University.She lectured in creative writing at Sheffield Hallam University....
, Intimates (Jonathan Cape) - 2004: Leontia FlynnLeontia FlynnLeontia Flynn is an Irish poet born in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland. Flynn grew up in Ballyloughlin, south County Down, between the towns of Newcastle and Dundrum, very close to the well known Murlough Nature Reserve...
, These Days (Jonathan Cape) - 2003: A. B. JacksonA. B. JacksonThe Scottish poet Andrew Buchanan Jackson was born on 19 June 1965, in Glasgow.His family soon moved to the town of Bramhall in Cheshire, where he received his primary school education...
, Fire Stations (Anvil Press) - 2002: Tom FrenchTom French (poet)Tom French is an Irish poet.-Life:He graduated from National University of Ireland, Galway and the University of Limerick.He lives in Dublin and works for the library service in County Wicklow....
, Touching the Bones (The Gallery Press) - 2001: John StammersJohn Stammers-Life:Stammers read philosophy at King's College London and is an Associate of Kings' College. He took up writing poetry in his 40s, joining Michael Donaghy’s City University poetry group. Stammers now teaches at Birkbeck College, University of London and City Lit. In 2002/03 he was appointed...
, The Panoramic Lounge Bar (Picador) - 2000: Andrew WaterhouseAndrew WaterhouseAndrew Waterhouse was a British poet, and musician.-Life:He grew up in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire. He studied at Newcastle University, and Wye College, taking an MSc. in environmental science...
, In (The Rialto) - 1999: Nick DrakeNick Drake (poet)-Life:He lives and works in London. His most recent projects include a stage adaptation of Philippe Petit’s To Reach the Clouds and a screenplay for the film Romulus, My Father.-Awards:...
, The Man in the White Suit (Bloodaxe) - 1998: Paul FarleyPaul FarleyPaul Farley is an award-winning English poet. He studied painting at the Chelsea School of Art, and has lived in London, Brighton and Cumbria...
, The Boy from the Chemist is Here to See You (Picador) - 1997: Robin RobertsonRobin RobertsonRobin Robertson is a Scottish poet.-Biography:Robertson was brought up on the north-east coast of Scotland, but has spent most of his professional life in London...
, A Painted Field (Picador) - 1996: Kate ClanchyKate Clanchy-Life:She was educated in Edinburgh and Oxford University. She lived in London's East End for several years, before moving to Oxfordshire where she now works as a teacher, journalist and freelance writer....
, Slattern (Chatto & Windus) - 1995: Jane DuranJane Duran-Background:Duran was born to an American mother and a Spanish father who had fought with the Republican army in the Spanish Civil war. He fled Spain after Franco's victory but would never talk about his experiences. The themes of silences, loss and exile haunt much of her work...
, Breathe Now, Breathe (Enitharmon Press) - 1994: Kwame DawesKwame DawesKwame Senu Neville Dawes is a poet, actor, editor, critic, musician, and Louis Frye Scudder Professor of Liberal Arts at the University of South Carolina. He currently works as editor-in-chief at the Prairie Schooner. -Life:...
, Progeny of Air (Peepal Tree) - 1993: Don PatersonDon PatersonDon Paterson, OBE, FRSL is a Scottish poet, writer and musician.-Background:Paterson was born in Dundee. He won an Eric Gregory Award in 1990 and his poem A Private Bottling won the Arvon Foundation International Poetry Competition in 1993. He was included on the list of 20 poets chosen for the...
, Nil Nil (Faber and Faber) - 1992: Simon ArmitageSimon ArmitageSimon Armitage CBE is a British poet, playwright, and novelist.-Life and career:Simon Armitage was born in Marsden, West Yorkshire. Armitage first studied at Colne Valley High School, Linthwaite, Huddersfield and went on to study geography at Portsmouth Polytechnic...
, Kid (Faber and Faber)
Best Single Poem
- 2011: R. F. LangleyR. F. LangleyRoger Francis Langley was an English poet and diarist. During his life, he was loosely affiliated with the Cambridge poetry scene.-Life and work:...
, 'To a Nightingale' (London Review of Books) - 2010: Julia CopusJulia CopusJulia Copus is a British poet and radio dramatist.-Career:Copus' books of poetry include The Shuttered Eye , which won her an Eric Gregory Award and was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, and In Defence of Adultery...
, 'An Easy Passage' - 2009: Robin RobertsonRobin RobertsonRobin Robertson is a Scottish poet.-Biography:Robertson was brought up on the north-east coast of Scotland, but has spent most of his professional life in London...
, 'At Roane Head' - 2008: Don PatersonDon PatersonDon Paterson, OBE, FRSL is a Scottish poet, writer and musician.-Background:Paterson was born in Dundee. He won an Eric Gregory Award in 1990 and his poem A Private Bottling won the Arvon Foundation International Poetry Competition in 1993. He was included on the list of 20 poets chosen for the...
, 'Love Poem for Natalie 'Tusja' Beridze' (Poetry Review) - 2007: Alice OswaldAlice Oswald-Career:Oswald read Classics at New College, Oxford, has worked as a gardener at Chelsea Physic Garden, and today lives with her husband, the playwright Peter Oswald , and her three children in Devon, in the South-West of England....
, 'Dunt' (Poetry London) - 2006: Sean O'BrienSean O'Brien (writer)Sean O'Brien is a British poet, critic, playwright. Prizes he has garnered include the Eric Gregory Award , the Somerset Maugham Award , the Cholmondeley Award , the Forward Poetry Prize and the T. S. Eliot Prize...
, 'Fantasia on a Theme of James Wright' (Poetry Review) - 2005: Paul FarleyPaul FarleyPaul Farley is an award-winning English poet. He studied painting at the Chelsea School of Art, and has lived in London, Brighton and Cumbria...
, 'Liverpool Disappears for a Billionth of a Second' (The North) - 2004: Daljit NagraDaljit NagraDaljit Nagra is a British poet whose debut collection, Look We Have Coming to Dover! — a title alluding to W. H. Auden's Look, Stranger!, D. H. Lawrence's Look! We have come through! and by epigraph also to Matthew Arnold's 'Dover Beach' — was published by Faber in February 2007...
, 'Look We Have Coming to Dover!' (Poetry Review) - 2003: Robert MinhinnickRobert MinhinnickRobert Minhinnick is a Welsh poet, essayist, novelist and translator.Minhinnick was born in Neath, and now lives in Porthcawl. He studied at University of Wales, Aberystwyth, and University of Wales, Cardiff. An environmental campaigner, he co-founded the charities Friends of the Earth and...
, 'The Fox in the National Museum of Wales' (Poetry London) - 2002: Medbh McGuckianMedbh McGuckianMedbh McGuckian is a poet from Northern Ireland.-Biography:She was born the third of six children as Maeve McCaughan to Hugh and Margaret McCaughan in North Belfast. Her father was a school headmaster and her mother an influential art and music enthusiast...
, 'She is in the Past, She has this Grace' (The Shop) - 2001: Ian DuhigIan Duhig-Life:He was the eighth of eleven children born to Irish parents. He graduated from Leeds University.He worked for 15 years with homeless people.He is a writer and teacher of creating writing at various institutions, including the Arvon Foundation....
, 'The Lammas Hireling' - 2000: Tessa BiddingtonTessa BiddingtonTessa Biddington, 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 Review...
, 'The Death of Descartes' - 1999: Robert MinhinnickRobert MinhinnickRobert Minhinnick is a Welsh poet, essayist, novelist and translator.Minhinnick was born in Neath, and now lives in Porthcawl. He studied at University of Wales, Aberystwyth, and University of Wales, Cardiff. An environmental campaigner, he co-founded the charities Friends of the Earth and...
, 'Twenty-five Laments for Iraq' - 1998: Sheenagh PughSheenagh PughSheenagh Pugh is a British poet, novelist and translator who writes in the English language.-Life:Sheenagh Pugh studied languages at the University of Bristol. She now lives in Shetland but lived for many years in Cardiff and taught creative writing at the University of Glamorgan until retiring in...
, 'Envying Owen Beattie' - 1997: Lavinia GreenlawLavinia Greenlaw-Biography:Greenlaw was born in London into a family of doctors and scientists, but spent much of her childhood in a small village in Essex. She began her working life in publishing and arts administration before embarking upon a career as a freelance artist, critic and radio broadcaster. She lives...
, 'A World Where News Travelled Slowly' - 1996: Kathleen JamieKathleen JamieKathleen Jamie FRSL is a Scottish poet, raised in Currie, Edinburgh. She gained an M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Edinburgh....
, 'The Graduates' - 1995: Jenny JosephJenny Joseph-Life and career:She was born in Birmingham, and with a scholarship, studied English literature at St Hilda's College, Oxford .Her poems were first published when she was at university in the early 1950s...
, 'In Honour of Love' - 1994: Iain Crichton SmithIain Crichton SmithIain Crichton Smith was a Scottish man of letters, writing in both English and Scottish Gaelic, and a prolific author in both languages...
, 'Autumn' - 1993: Vicki FeaverVicki FeaverVicki Feaver is an English poet. She studied music at Durham University and English at University College, London, and later worked as a lecturer and tutor in English and Creative Writing at University College, Chichester, where she is an Emeritus Professor.She now lives with her psychiatrist...
, 'Judith' - 1992: Jackie KayJackie KayJackie Kay MBE is a Scottish poet and novelist.-Biography:Jackie Kay was born in Glasgow in 1961 to a Scottish mother and a Nigerian father, Jonathan C. Okafor who later became a prominent tropical plant taxonomist...
, 'Black Bottom'
See also
- List of literary awards
- List of British literary awards
- English poetryEnglish poetryThe history of English poetry stretches from the middle of the 7th century to the present day. Over this period, English poets have written some of the most enduring poems in Western culture, and the language and its poetry have spread around the globe. Consequently, the term English poetry is...
- List of poetry awards
- List of years in poetry
- List of years in literature