The Forward Prizes were set up in 1992, and have been celebrating excellence in poetry ever since. It's an honour to see Disko Bay on this year's shortlist alongside poems and collections by writers I have admired since I started writing myself. A few names on the shortlist are new to me - but not for long, as I bought up all the available titles (some have not yet been published) in Blackwells this afternoon.
The Guardian has a good survey of the shortlist. It reports William Seighart, founder of the Forward Prizes, saying: 'What we think of as English is expanding all the time - and these poets are on the frontline of change, making homes for new words and dialects, contributing their acuteness of expression, their powers of noticing, to the endless redrafting of the language.'
The award ceremony (billed as 'the poetry event of the year') is on 20 September 2016 at the Royal Festival Hall, London. Tickets available here.
1 comment:
Lucky me, I have just one of the list but I'm happy with it :)
Well deserved, Nancy!
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