The 2024 Forward prizes shortlists have been announced. The contenders for the £10,000 Forward best collection prize are: Rachael Allen’s God Complex (Faber & Faber); Victoria Chang’s With my back to the World (Corsair); Ella Frears’ Goodlord: An email (Rough Trade Books); Fady Joudah’s […] (Outspoken Press); and Sarah Wimbush’s Strike (Stairwell Press).

Contenders for the £5,000 Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection are: Sanah Ahsan’s I cannot be good until you say it (Bloomsbury); Jasmine Cooray’s Inheritance (Bad Betty Press);  Charlotte Shevkenko-Knight’s Food for the Dead (Jonathan Cape); Marjorie Lotfi’s The Wrong Person to Ask (Bloodaxe); and Kelly Michels’ American Anthem (Gallery Press).

The shortlist for the Best Single Poem – Written prize is: Vasiliki Albedo’s ‘On hearing the seismologist say there could be an 8.5R earthquake near Athens’ (And Other Poems); Derek Chan’s ‘A Craft Talk on the Praxis of an August Evening’ (Oxford Poetry); Cindy Juyoung Ok’s ‘Ward of One’ (Poetry London); Lisa Kelly’s ‘I Wanted To Show You A Donkey’ (Rialto); and Tifi Kusoro’s ‘the only other dark skinned girl’ (National Poetry Competition).   

Contenders for the Best Single Poem – Performed prize are: Nasim Rebecca Asil’s ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’; Toby Campion’s ‘ghazal, screaming’; Eve Esfandiari-Denney’s ‘Nearly White Girl Girling on Behalf of Proximity to Mammal’; Leyla Josephine’s ‘Dear John Berger’; and Michael Pedersen’s ‘What Grief Feels Like to Me’.

You can read more about all the contenders here

This year’s Forward judges are actor, presenter, and poet Craig Charles (chair), and poets and writers Alycia Pirmohamed, Vanessa Kisuule, Daniel Sluman and Jane Clarke. This year's winners will be announced at a ceremony at Durham Book Festival on 10 October.