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.
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 28th Forward Prizes will be awarded on 20 October 2019 at the Southbank Centre in London

Awards

The Forward Prizes for Poetry consist of three awards:
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.

Judges

The 2019 judging panel will be chaired by writer and broadcaster Shahidha Bari. She will be joined by poets Tara Bergin, Andrew McMillan, and Carol Rumens, alongside Jamie Andrews, Head of Culture and Learning at the British Library.

Previous winners

Best Collection