Actors take the stage to read poems from the Forward Book of Poetry 2014  again when Lindsay Duncan joins Zawe Ashton, Juliet Cowan, Beatie Edney, Paterson Joseph, Finbar Lynch and Simon Williams in a performance at London’s Bush theatre on Tuesday 12 November as part of the Brook Green festival of books. The reading of poems by actors caused controversy at the Forward prize-giving last month at London’s Southbank - a new departure with members of the public buying tickets to attend - as some poets felt sidelined by the move.

One poet, Katy Evans-Bush, said in a blog headed “The Forward Prize, the Oscars, and fairy dust”, that “many poets are weighing in saying, I saw an actor read my work and they got it all wrong. Kids, once you’ve published it, people can get it as wrong as they like. You had the baby, you raised it, and it went out into the world, where things just are what they are. So that’s not a valid complaint. (Though actors over-egging and stressing silly words is an issue, that’s not about the poem, it’s about them, and their industry.) No, the idea was, I’m sure, to raise profile and sell books and get mainstream attention.”

In a comment on the blog, Forward organiser Susannah Herbert said: “We are already planning next year’s Forward Prizes awards ceremony with the Southbank. The venue will be bigger, the evening will feature BOTH poets and actors and the winners will be physically detained on stage by acrobats in sparkly g-strings until they have delivered not just an impromptu speech but a Full Recitation of Their Greatest Hits.”

She added that this year’s event had been an “an experiment and an innovation. I’m awfully sorry some folk have taken offence on behalf of the poets – who have all been courtesy incarnate, by the way – but there is no going back now to the roomful-of-insiders scenario.”

Tuesday night’s Forward event, a benefit for the literacy charity Beanstalk, begins at 7pm. More details 

Background: Michael Symmons Roberts wins top Forward prize

Review: Forward Book of Poetry 2014