Popular Midlands spoken word performer Bohdan Piasecki has won the first Forward prize for best single performed poem with ‘Almost Certainly’, which begins “It’s almost certainly impossible to appreciate the beauty of an explosion …” After his £1,000 win was announced he told the audience at Leeds Playhouse: “I wrote this poem for my grandmother, who died fighting in the Warsaw uprising in 1944. I wish it were less relevant as I speak to you now.”

Bohdan founded the first poetry slam in Poland before moving to the UK to get a doctorate in translation studies. He has worked as director of education on the Spoken Word in Education MA course at Goldsmiths University, and was the Midlands producer for Apples and Snakes between 2010 and 2017. He is assistant professor in creative writing at the University of Birmingham. He also works as creative producer, and sits on the board of the Poetry Translation Centre.

It was the first time that the Forward prizes has staged a best performed poem category – a move hailed by compere Joelle Taylor, a TS Eliot prize winner as well as a leading spoken word performer.

Judge Chris Redmond said: "Bohdan's poem is not only moving and meticulously crafted, his performance of it is electric. It’s a great example of how many things come into play for 'performance poetry' to be more than a recitation. It’s the combination of physical and emotional presence, connection with the audience, command over voice, pace, dynamic range, and sensitivity at all times, to the poem itself."

The £10,000 Forward prize for best collection went to Jason Allen-Paisant, pictured right, for Self-Portrait as Othello. He thanked Carcanet publisher Michael Schmidt, who he said had sat next to him at a dinner, vetted him during the evening, and then asked him to send a couple of poems. The chair of judges for the Best Collections panel, Bernardine Evaristo, described the winning collection as an "exhilarating and propulsive read that sweeps through several European cities that become subject to the black male gaze, changing what is seen and who is heard. Playful, intimate and allusive, these poems interrogate masculinity and history, experiment with the myth of Othello, mourn absent fathers, and offer us a refreshing mash-up of languages that regenerate poetry so that it feels freshly minted.’

Momtaza Mehri, pictured left, won the £5,000 best first collection prize with Bad Diaspora Poems, with Bernadine Evaristo describing it as "an exceptional debut collection that reinvigorates ideas around diaspora, migration and home. Wide-ranging and ambitious, her poetry shimmers with erudition and linguistic exquisiteness, while also having an emotional heart. Drawing on global cultures, Mehri is a truly transnational poet of the twenty-first century whose words pulsate out into the world-at-large."

Malika Booker, pictured right, won the £1,000 best published single poem prize, despite ending her reading of ‘Libation’ abruptly when she realised she had left the last page backstage. She was able to complete the poem after being announced as the winner. Judge Chris Redmond said that the piece, originally published in Poetry Review, "reads like a drink. A slow pour of linguistic libation that funnels the reader down into the depths of ritual, grief, culture and society. It works hard to tread so lightly and holds all of this with tenderness and love."

The evening was introduced by the poet laureate Simon Armitage, who observed that “poetry has changed, and the Forward prizes have changed with it”.

That is certainly true. Mention must also be made of another best first collection contender, Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa, whose stunning performance of a poem from Cane, Corn and Gully - angry, fearful, and very theatrical - must have made many wonder if she was appearing in the wrong category. The Forwards had never seen anything quite like it before.  

Bernardine Evaristo was chair for the Best Collections panel, with fellow judges Kate Fox, Karen McCarthy Woolf, Andrés N Ordórica and Jessica Traynor. Joelle Taylor was chair for Best Single Poems panel, and was joined by Khadijah Ibrahiim, Caroline Bird, Chris Redmond and Sue Roberts.

You can watch Bohdan Piasecki's winning poem here