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
Best First Collection
Best Single Poem
| 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 | [33] |
| 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 | [34] |