At Southbank on the Thames, where the Forward Prizes for Poetry winners are to be named in October. Image – Getty: Ogulcan Aksoy
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Winners’ Announcement: October 26
The United Kingdom and Ireland’s Forward Prizes for Poetry, has today (July 17) announced this year’s quartet of categories, each with five shortlistees.
This year’s winners are to be announced at an event at London’s Southbank Centre during the London Literature Festival at Queen Elizabeth Hall on October 26.
One of the jurors for this year’s program, Rommi Smith (along with juror Lisa Kelly, who is credited with helping to broaden submissions), has noted that in this year’s shortlists there are poets who use British sign language. That’s a timely observation as across the Channel, the European Accessibility Act now is newly in force. While the UK has left the EU, of course, Ireland has not. And the requirements of the new act will be levied on those who want to export to Europe as well as on European-made content. Should you be a publisher in need of guidance on compliance with the new act, we recommend the Milan-based Fondazione LIA, a leader in the Continent’s organizations dedicated to the issue.
In another comment from a juror—unfortunately not as often voiced around poetry as the industry and readers need—Sean O’Brien says, “I hoped to find poems that accept the obligation of the poet to make work that endures and renews itself for successive readers and listeners. I’m delighted to say that such work was there to be found, both among established poets and newcomers.”
For those who follow poetry, it’s worth noting that this year’s National Poetry Day in the United Kingdom is set for October 2.
You’ll note in our listings of the four categories’ shortlistees, that we list cash awards applied to each.
Collection Shortlist 2025
Purse: £10,000 (US$13,410)
I Sugar the Bones by Juana Adcock, Out-Spoken Press
Southernmost: Sonnets by Leo Boix, Penguin Random House / Chatto & Windus
The Island in the Sound by Niall Campbell, Bloodaxe Books
Avidyā by Vidyan Ravinthiran, Bloodaxe Books
Wellwater by Karen Solie, Pan Macmillan / Picador
Jerwood Prize for First Collection Shortlist 2025
Purse: £5,000 (US$6,705)
Theophanies by Sarah Ghazal Ali, The 87 Press
Chaotic Good by Isabelle Baafi, Faber
Heirloom by Catherine-Esther Cowie, Carcanet Press
Altar by Desree, Bad Betty
Goonie by Michael Mullen, Corsair
Single Poem, Written, Shortlist 2025
Purse: £1,000 (US$1,341)
“At Least” by Abeer Ameer, Modron Magazine
“Birds of the Arctic” by Simon Armitage, Times Literary Supplement
“A Parliament of Jets” by Tom Branfoot, Ambient Receiver
“Girl Ghosts” by Tim Tim Cheng, Perverse Magazine
“Codex©” by Nick Makoha, Bath Magg
Single Poem, Performed, Shortlist 2025
Purse: £1,000 (US$1,341)
“Dynamic Disks, 1933” by Raymond Antrobus
“Sikiliza” by Bella Cox
“Where I’m From” by Griot Gabriel, Manchester UNESCO City of Literature
“Mum Does the Washing” by Joshua Idehen, Bad Betty
“The portrait and the skylight” by Zoë McWhinney
More from Publishing Perspectives on the Forward Prizes is here, more on international book and publishing awards is here, more on poetry is here, more on the United Kingdom’s market is here, and more on the Irish market, a part of the European Union, is here.