2024 Forward Prizes for Poetry Shortlists

By Amy Joan Sayner and Maisie George

Created in 1991, the Forward Arts Foundation was established to promote the enjoyment and understanding of poetry. Its founder, William Sieghart, had decided that he wanted an anthology of all the best poetry of the year, and so he published one himself. Three years later, Siegart founded National Poetry Day so poetry enthusiasts could celebrate their passion. In the last thirty years, the Forward Arts Foundation has worked closely with retailers, booksellers, libraries, and schools; since 2016, the Poems of the Decade anthology has been on the A-Level syllabus. More recently, the first ever spoken word prize, Jerwood Prize for Best Single Poem, was launched to celebrate the vitality of the spoken word in 2022.

The Forward Prizes for Poetry were also founded by Sighart in 1992. They are the most influential awards for new poetry in the UK and Ireland, held at a public ceremony in London. The Prizes are awarded in four categories: 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 – Written (£1,000), and the Jerwood Prize for Best Single Poem – Performed (£1,000). Some of the most recognised names in poetry have been awarded by the prizes, including Simon Armitage, Thom Gunn, Seamus Heaney, Ted Hughes, Carol Ann Duffy, Claudia Rankine, Jackie Kay, and Caleb Femi.

At an event in London on July 17, twenty poets were shortlisted for this year’s prizes. The work chosen demonstrates the “astonishing breadth of styles and themes that contemporary poetry currently has to offer,” says judge and writer Vanessa Kisuule. By tackling topics such as Gaza and Ukraine, toxic landlords, the opioid epidemic,  displacement and transgenerational memory to the miners’ strike, and the Met Gala, the poets have “found the language and form to sing of what it is to be human at this moment in time,” as stated by judge and poet Jane Clarke.

Co-Executive Director of the Forward Arts Foundation, Mónica Parle, has said, “We are extraordinarily proud of these incredible shortlists. The judges steeped themselves in a trove of books from publishers big and small across the UK, as well as hundreds of individual poems. In this list, you will find a symphony of fresh voices, ideas, and forms. These selections incisively capture the lived experience of the world today, as poetry is so immediate and capable of responding to the urgency of these times like no other artform. Anyone who wants a compelling way to think about our times, read these books.”

2024 SHORTLISTS

The Forward Prize for Best Collection

God Complex by Rachael Allen

With My Back to the World by Victoria Chang

Goodlord by Ella Frears

[...] by Fady Joudah

STRIKE by Sarah Wimbush

The Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection

I cannot be good until you say it by Sanah Ahsan

Inheritance by Jasmine Cooray

Food for the Dead by Charlotte Shevchenko Knight

The Wrong Person to Ask by Marjorie Lotfi

American Anthem by Kelly Michels

The Forward Prize for Best Single Poem – Written

‘On hearing the seismologist say there could be an 8.5R earthquake near Athens’ by

Vasiliki Albedo

‘A Craft Talk on the Praxis of an August Evening’ by Derek Chan

‘Ward of One’ by Cindy Juyong Ok

‘I Wanted To Show You A Donkey’ by Lisa Kelly

‘the only other dark skinned girl’ by Tife Kusoro

The Jerwood Prize for Best Single Poem – Performed

‘ghazal, screaming’ by Toby Campion

‘Nearly White Girl Girling on Behalf of Proximity to

‘Mammal’ by Eve Esfandiari-Denney

‘Dear John Berger’ by Leyla Josephine

‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ by Nasim Rebecca Asl

‘What Grief Feels Like to Me’ by Michael Pedersen