Liz Berry’s Black Country, which won the Forward prize for best first collection last year, has been shortlisted for this year’s Fenton Aldeburgh first collection prize. Two poets who made the shortlist for this year’s Forward best first collection prize have also been included on the Fenton Aldeburgh shortlist   -  Karen McCarthy Woolf (An Aviary of Small Birds) and Andrew McMillan (physical).  Also on the shortlist are Jim Carruth’s Killochries and Rebecca Perry’s Beauty/Beauty. The judges this year are Patience Agbabi, Tiffany Atkinson and Robert Seatter (chair).

Patience Agbabi said of the shortlist: “These didn’t read like debut collections. The assurance of voice, the formal experimentation, the level of ambition in subject matter and delivery. Some poems made me gasp out loud, the language was so alive.” The winner will be announced at the first Main Reading at Aldeburgh poetry festival on Friday 6 November, at which last year’s winner, Helen Mort, will read with Kei Miller and Jeremy Reed.

PHOTOGRAPH: GREG FREEMAN / WRITE OUT LOUD