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Previous winners Robertson and Shapcott compete in Forward Prize for Poetry shortlist
21 July 2010
The shortlists for the categories in the Forward Prize for Poetry have been announced, with six different poets competing for an award in one of the UKs top poetry accolades.
Set up in 1992 by William Sieghart, to bring more attention to contemporary poetry, the Forward Prize honours poems published between 1st October 2009 and 30th September 2010, with the most influential poems making the category short lists for Best Collection, the Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection and the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem, the winner of each picking up prize money of £10,000, £5,000 and £1,000 respectively.
Battling it out for the most prestigious award of Best Collection, are a selection of established as well as up and coming poets, including Seamus Heaney, Fiona Sampson and Lachlan Mackinnon, as well as past winners Jo Shapcott and Robin Robertson. In fact, Robertson has previously picked up the prize in all three of the Forward Prize's for Poetry categories.
There's a diverse range of poetry themes in the running, with Seamus Heaney's, Human Chain, looking at the close relationships between family members, the poet has also won a Nobel Prize, the Whitbread prize and also the TS Eliot Prize in 2006. Newcomer Lachlan Mackinnon's Small Hours was inspired by the premature death of a close friend, whilst Rough Music by Fiona Sampson explores the relationship between violence and loss.
The Judges, comprising of poet Hugo Williams, journalist Alex Clark, actress Fiona Shaw, poet Dreadlockalien and chairwoman by Ruth Padel have described whittling down the 147 collections into the shortlists as extremely "tough", with many poems and books they loved eventually being excluded because of the high quality of entries.
Each year, the best poems from the contest are published in The Forward Book of Poetry, with past editions available to buy now and here at Find-Book, we'll compare retailer prices from across the web to find you the best deals.
Previous winners of the Forward Prize for Poetry, include last year's winner Don Paterson, for Rain, which exposes the elements within the world and Mick Imlah who picked up the 2008 honour with The Lost Leader.
The winner of each prize will be revealed on 6th October 2010, the day before National Poetry Day, at London's Somerset House.
Here's the shortlists, along with the cheapest prices for the available books in each category, simply click on the name of the book to display the best deals...
Best Collection Shortlist
- Seamus Heaney – Human Chain
- Sinead Morrissey – Through the Square Window
- Lachlan Mackinnon – Small Hours
- Fiona Sampson – Rough Music
- Robin Robertson – The Wrecking Light
- Jo Shapcott – Of Mutability
Best First Collection Shortlist
- Christian Campbell – Running the Dusk
- Hilary Menos - Berg
- Abegail Morley – How to Pour Madness into a Teacup
- Helen Oswald – Learning Gravity
- Steve Spence – A Curious Shipwreck
- Sam Willetts– New Light for the Old Dark
Best Single Poem Shortlist
- Kate Bingham – On Highgate Hill
- Julia Copus – An Easy Passage
- Lydia Fulleylove – Night Drive
- Chris Jones – Sentences
- Ian Pindar – Mrs Beltinska in the Bath
- Lee Sand – The Reach
