Forward Prize Shortlist

The Forward Prize for Best Collection (£10,000)

• Ciaran Carson, From Elsewhere (The Gallery Press)
• Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, The Boys of Bluehill (The Gallery Press)
• Paul Muldoon, One Thousand Things Worth Knowing (Faber & Faber)
• Claudia Rankine, Citizen (Penguin Poetry)
• Peter Riley, Due North (Shearsman)

The Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection (£5,000)

• Mona Arshi, Small Hands (Liverpool University Press, Pavilion Poetry)
• Sarah Howe, Loop of Jade (Chatto & Windus)
• Andrew McMillan, Physical (Jonathan Cape)
• Matthew Siegel, Blood Work (CB Editions)
• Karen McCarthy Woolf, An Aviary of Small Birds (Carcanet)

The Forward Prize for Best Single Poem (£1,000)

• Maura Dooley, Cleaning Jim Dine’s Heart (Poetry Review)
• Andrew Elliott, Döppelganger (Sonofabook)
• Ann Gray, My Blue Hen (The Moth)
• Claire Harman, The Mighty Hudson (TLS)
• Kim Moore, In That Year (Poetry News)

The winner will be announced on 28 September.

The Forward Prizes for Poetry were created in 1991 by William Sieghart with the aim of extending poetry’s audience, raising poetry’s profile and linking poetry to people in new ways. The prizes do this by identifying and honouring talent. Each year, works shortlisted for the prizes – plus those highly commended by the judges – are collected in the Forward Book of Poetry. (Wikipedia)

Last year’s winner

• Kei Miller, The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion (Carcanet) – The Forward Prize for Best Collection
• Liz Berry, Black Country (Chatto & Windus) – The Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection
• Stephen Santus, ‚In a Restaurant‘ (The Bridport Prize) – The Forward Prize for Best Single Poem