The Forward Prizes for Poetry were founded by William Sieghart to celebrate excellence in poetry and increase its audience in 1992.
There are four prizes on offer: 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 (£1,000), and the new Forward Prize for Best Single Poem – Performed (£1,000). Previous winners include Kei Miller, Danez Smith, and Claudia Rankine, and Malika Booker.
The 2023 edition of the prize is being judged by Booker Prize winner Bernardine Evaristo (collections categories Chair) alongside Kate Fox, Karen McCarthy Woolf, Andrés N. Ordórica and Jessica Traynor. The single poem categories panel is chaired by Joelle Taylor who is joined by Khadijah Ibrahiim, Caroline Bird, Chris Redmond and Sue Roberts.
The shortlists for the awards have been announced and these are the writers of African descent in the running;
Best Collection
Self Portrait as Othello, Jason Allen-Paisant
The Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection
Cane, Corn & Gully, Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa
Bad Diaspora Poems, Momtaza Mehri
Cowboy, Kandace Siobhan Walker
Best Single Poem – Written
Libation, Malika Booker
Best Single Poem – Performed
Human. This Embodied Knowledge, Zena Edwards
The City Kids See the Sea, Roger Robinson
This year’s winners will be announced at a ceremony in Leeds Playhouse, as part of Leeds 23, on October 16 2023.
