Forward Prizes for Poetry 2025

Forward Prizes for Poetry

The Forward Prizes for Poetry are the most influential awards for new poetry in the UK and Ireland, honouring fresh voices alongside internationally established names.

First awarded in 1992, over the last three decades the prizes have celebrated some of the most recognised names in poetry including Simon Armitage, Thom Gunn, Seamus Heaney, Ted Hughes, Carol Ann Duffy, Claudia Rankine, Jackie Kay and Caleb Femi.

We've had a closer look at some of the shortlisted titles:

Altar by Desree 

The debut poetry collection from award-winning writer and spoken word artist, Desree, 'Altar' explores multifaceted dimensions of sacrifice. These poems urge their protagonists to play neither lion nor lamb, but to live and flourish on their own terms. Through reflections on Black British identity, queer joy, place and belonging, faith and consent.

Published by our friends at Nottingham’s Bad Betty Press.

Goonie by Michael Mullen 

All aspects of Mullen's life as a performer, a poet, a queer son, a Scot, a working-class boy, come together on the page casting a sceptical eye on identity whilst also championing it. Goonie address the ties that bind - a testament on how to love (ourselves, our heritage, our landscape, each other).

Chaotic Good by Isabelle Baafi 

A piercing debut about how we are made, how we get lost and how we find new selves. Framed by the story of escape from a toxic marriage, Baafi focuses on the incremental ways in which power accumulates, shifts and is relinquished within both home and community. 

The Island in the Sound by Niall Campbell 

An archipelago of memories, lyrics, observations and folktales placing the small islands of Campbell’s birthplace into conversation with moments from literature and history. The Sound of the title has a double meaning, both a thing that might be heard but also a body of water between islands or mainland, from the Norse word Sund. 

Wellwater by Karen Solie 

Solie’s roving, syntactically elegant poems will often resolve in disarming directness, a precise admission of the emotional stakes. Karen Solie is increasingly recognised as one of the essential voices in world poetry. Wellwater will delight those already in the know, while new readers of her work will be astonished.

We can't wait to see which titles will win!