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Who are the contenders for this year’s Forward prizes? Here are the 2026 shortlists 

The 2026 Forward prize shortlists have been announced, with chair of judges Sarah Moss praising a “deeply exciting” range, the subjects including “grief, laughter, old age, embodiment, landscape; lamentation and celebration and observation”. Her fellow judges are poets Romalyn Ante, WN Herbert, Michael Mullen (shortlisted for the Jerwood Prize for Best First Collection last year), and Yomi Ṣode.

The shortlist for the £10,00...

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News and Opinion

Meet the Hot Poets … an ambitious, award-winning, internationally focused arts organisation, working to communicate climate change science and action ...

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The poet Blake Morrison - pictured - has highlighted, in an article for the Guardian, that Labour's expected new leader and prime minister, Andy Burnh...

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Two striking and substantial new anthologies have been launched by husband and wife team Mark and Gill Connors at Yaffle Press. Poems inspired by the ...

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June's poem of the month is 'Of An Obscurity Of Poets' by Trevor Alexander, a wry and playful winner among many fine poems posted on Write Out Loud la...

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Malika Booker, Niall Campbell, and Luke Kennard are judging this year's National Poetry Competition, organised by the Poetry Society. The first prize ...

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Rosie Garland will be judging the £300 Cheltenham poetry festival competition. Entries should be unpublished and no more than 50 lines. The deadline i...

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This annual free to enter competition is aimed at those aged 16 and over living anywhere, and not just in North Tyneside. This year’s ‘Reading’ theme ...

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Pamela Gormally lives in Alnwick, Northumberland, and holds an MA in creative writing from Newcastle University. She won first prize in the Sonnet or ...

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