Forward Prizes for Poetry 2019 Ceremony

The Forward Prizes for Poetry Ceremony

Sunday 20 October 2019

7.00 pm

The best poetry being published in the British Isles today is recognised at this ceremony, hosted by jury chair Shahidha Bari and poet Andrew McMillan. Featuring readings from the 15 shortlisted poets, the Forward Prizes rank among the year’s great literary celebrations.This year’s judges, Shahidha Bari, Jamie Andrews, Tara Bergin, Andrew McMillan and Carol Rumens, read over 200 poetry collections and 180 single poems to find the most exciting poetry published across the UK and Ireland.

The prize shortlists are as follows:

The Forward Prize for Best Collection

City of Departures by Helen Tookey (Carcanet)
Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky (Faber & Faber)
The Million-Petalled Flower of Being Here by Vidyan Ravinthiran (Bloodaxe Books)
Noctuary by Niall Campbell (Bloodaxe Books)
Vertigo & Ghost by Fiona Benson (Cape)

Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection
If All the World and Love Were Young by Stephen Sexton (Penguin Books)
The Perseverance by Raymond Antrobus (Penned in the Margins)
Significant Other by Isabel Galleymore (Carcanet)
Surge by Jay Bernard (Chatto & Windus)
Truth Street by David Cain (Smokestack Books)

The Forward Prize for Best Single Poem

Bridge by Jonathan Edwards (The Frogmore Papers)
Comic Timing by Holly Pester (Granta Magazine)
Forty Names by Parwana Fayyaz (PN Review)
Highbury Park by Liz Berry (Wild Court)
The Window by Mary Jean Chan (The National Poetry Competition by the Poetry Society)

Tickets: Southbank Centre