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 £10,000 Best Collection prize is: Tishani Doshi, Egrets, While War (Bloodaxe);  Sarah Howe, Foretokens (Chatto & Windus); Keith Jarrett, HIde Me Under the Blood and I Shall Be Satisfied (Bad Betty Press); Karen McCarthy Woolf, Unsafe (Bloomsbury); Caroline Smith, Bycatch (Nine Arches Press).

The £5,000 Jerwood Prize for Best First Collection shortlist is: Sophie Dumont, Sculling (Corsair); Roshni Gallagher, Even the Trees (Bloodaxe); Shauna M Morgan, Ground Provisions (Peepal Tree Press); Catherine Redford, The Way the Water Held Me (The Emma Press) ; Nur Turkmani, October (Hajar Press). 

The shortlist for Best Single Poem - Written is: Tara Bergin, ‘The Fear’ (The Stinging Fly); Kizziah Burton, ‘Portrait of my Daughter as Postmortem with Needle’ (Myslexia Poetry Competition); Alexandra Corrin-Tachibana, ‘Madam Gout’ (Magma Poetry); Fiona Larkin, ‘Absence has a grammar’ (National Poetry Competition); Riwa Saab, ‘night guard’ (And Other Poems). The Best Single Poem - Performed is: Ellie Rose Amit, ‘Frozen Fruit’; Francis-Xavier Mukiibi, ‘To the One Who Holds the Maxim Gun’; Takunda Muzondiwa, ‘Diamonds’; Maureen Onwunali, ‘When I Give Up My Seat For You’; Biff Smith, ‘Dumbarton East’.

The 2026 Forward prizes ceremony 2026 will take place at London's Southbank Centre on Saturday 24 October (7-9.30pm). Tickets will be on sale soon.