Two poets said to have bridged the gap between page and performance poetry have been shortlisted for the Forward prize for best first collection. Rhian Edwards, whose Clueless Dogs collection is published by Seren, won the John Tripp award, Wales’ top spoken word award, in November last year. She is from Bridgend in south Wales.  Jacob Sam-La Rose, whose Breaking Silence is published by Bloodaxe, is artistic director of the London Teenage Poetry Slam, and an editor for flipped eye press. Others on the best first collection shortlist are Loretta Collins Klobah, The Twelve-Foot Neon Woman (Peepal Tree Press); Lucy Hamilton, Stalker (Shearsman); and Sam Riviere, 81 Austerities (Faber and Faber).

 The shortlist for best collection is: Beverley Bie Brahic, White Sheets (CB Editions); Jorie Graham, Place (Carcanet); Barry Hill, Naked Clay: Drawing from Lucian Freud (Shearsman); Geoffrey Hill, Odi Barbare (Clutag Press); and Selima Hill, People Who Like Meatballs (Bloodaxe).
 
The shortlist for best single poem in memory of Michael Donaghy is: Greta Stoddart, Deep Sea Diver (Magma); Denise Riley, A Part Song (London Review of Books);  Michael Longley, Marigolds, 1960 (London Review of Books); John Kinsella, Mea Culpa: Cleaning the Gutters (Warwick Review); and Marilyn Hacker, Fugue on a line of Amr bin M'ad Yakrib (The Wolf magazine)
 
The judging panel for the Forward prizes for poetry 2012 is chaired by Leonie Rushforth, a poet and teacher who was a Forward Prize judge last year. She is joined by fellow poets Ian McMillan and Alice Oswald, along with Emma Hogan, a literary critic who writes on poetry for The Economist, and Megan Walsh, from the The Times Saturday Review.
 
Leonie Rushforth said: “We were very impressed by the quality and variousness of the work submitted to us for consideration, and especially delighted by the standard of this year's first collections. There was no obvious route to the shortlists (recurrence of the surname Hill notwithstanding) - we have had to let go of many excellent collections in the process. The lists we have agreed reflect the wonderful range of poetries being written in English today and we are looking forward to finding the winners from them.”

The winners will be announced on Wednesday 3 October, the eve of National Poetry Day, at Somerset House, London.