Forward Prizes for Poetry 2024
Selected by the Bookshop
The Forward Prizes were conceived in 1992 – the same year Miley Cyrus was born – and, like Cyrus, they have gone from strength to strength. Browse the shortlists here, or listen to our podcast with Rachael Allen, nominated for her magnificent second Faber collection God Complex. Or, alternatively, listen to some Miley Cyrus (we are big fans of ‘Jaded’, from 2023’s surprisingly well-received Endless Summer Vacation).
From the publisher:
God Complex, Rachael Allen's second collection, is a sweeping and corrosive epic, a narrative poem that tells the story of the breakup of a toxic relationship in the face of the similarly toxic catastrophe of global degradation and…
From the publisher:
WINNER OF THE FORWARD PRIZE FOR BEST COLLECTION 2024A new collection of poetry inspired by the work of Agnes Martin, exploring topics of feminism, art, depression, and grief, by the author of the prizewinning collection Obit. The collection…
From the publisher:
“ALL THE HOT WOMEN I KNOW HAVE ELLA FREARS ON THEIR BEDSIDE TABLES.”—Sheena PatelTaking the form of one long email addressed to an estate agent, Goodlord is a fictional memoir of habitation, a genre-defying…
From the publisher:
Responding to the unspeakable in real time, Joudah offers multiple ways of seeing the world through a Palestinian lens. Fady Joudah is the author of […]. He has published six other collections of poems: The Earth in the Attic;…
From the publisher:
It Is March 1984 and the miners’ strike has just started. By exploring both famous and previously unseen photographs through the lens of poetry, STRIKE captures the turbulence of one of the longest industrial disputes in British…
From the publisher:
The much-anticipated debut collection by the winner of the Outspoken Performance Poetry Prize: a tender meditation on queerness and Islam'Dissolving whatever boundaries would wall us off from love, Ahsan finds a way to let it all be holy'…
From the publisher:
Poetry Book Society Recommendation Winter 2023Lately we seem to find flowers in unexpected places: sunflowers blooming from club speakers, lavender sprouting between piano keys, a black cat collared with daisies and…
From the publisher:
This searingly powerful first collection about Ukrainian identity is a howl of anguish and an elegant counter-song against totalitarianism**WINNER OF AN ERIC GREGORY AWARD**This searingly powerful first collection about Ukrainian identity…
From the publisher:
WINNER OF THE FORWARD PRIZE FOR BEST FIRST COLLECTION 2024Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection 2024Winner of the James Berry Poetry Prize 2021Poetry Book Society Special CommendationMarjorie Lotfi’s award-winning debut…
From the publisher:
‘After spending a week sleeping on the floor / of a crack house she comes home dragging / a heap of bones.’ So begins Kelly Michels’ sometimes shocking debut as the author remembers observing her mother. Blending lyric and…