Forward Arts Foundation

The Forward Prizes for Poetry are the most influential awards for new poetry in the UK and Ireland. Categories: Best Collection (£10,000), Best First Collection (£5,000), Best Single Poem – Written (£1,000), Best Single Poem – Performed (£1,000).

Only ‘The Forward Prize for Best Single Poem – Performed’ is open to self-submissions (one entry per poet); all other categories do not accept self-submissions.

In instances where a judge has substantial editorial influence at a magazine or publisher, we ask that the magazine/publisher not submit to the prizes that year.

Anyone working for Forward Arts Foundation, or related to our staff, trustees, and judging panel may NOT submit.



Forward Prizes for Poetry

Please read contest details carefully before submitting.

submittable link: https://forwardartsfoundation.submittable.com/submit

Collections must be published in the previous calendar year.

All entries must have been published in the UK or Republic of Ireland, including works from within the British Isles.

Books published simultaneously in the UK/ROI and overseas are eligible, but only if the UK/ROI publication is within 12 months of the first overseas publication. Translations from other languages are not eligible.

Pamphlets are not eligible for the Forward Prizes. All collections should be more than 40 pages of poetry (i.e. not including front and end matter).

Collections should contain predominantly new poems or poems which have not previously been published in book form (excluding pamphlets)



Best Collection

Collections must be published in the previous calendar year.

All entries must have been published in the UK or Republic of Ireland, including works from within the British Isles.

Books published simultaneously in the UK/ROI and overseas are eligible, but only if the UK/ROI publication is within 12 months of the first overseas publication. Translations from other languages are not eligible.

Pamphlets are not eligible for the Forward Prizes. All collections should be more than 40 pages of poetry (i.e. not including front and end matter).

Collections should contain predominantly new poems or poems which have not previously been published in book form (excluding pamphlets)

Must be a poet's first published collection.

Best First Collection

A prize of £1,000 will be given to the author of the best single poem that has been published in a newspaper, periodical or magazine in the UK or Republic of Ireland, or has been the winner of a poetry competition with a prize awarded between the same dates.

All entries must have been published or produced in the UK or Republic of Ireland, including works from within the British Isles.

We will only accept the submission of a single poem. Where multiple sections with distinct titles are submitted, these may be deemed a sequence and will not be considered eligible.

Book-length poems should be submitted in the Best Collection or the Best First Collection category.

Best Single Poem-- Written

A prize of £1,000 will be given to the author of the best new performance or a new poem to camera. 

This prize category views “performance” as the act of a poet inhabiting a poem using their voice and/or the body. Though the poem may also be published in written form, this category is not simply for a poet reading their poem, but for the delivery of a poem that is crafted and shaped with an eye to engaging an audience, whether it be down a lens or sitting in a venue. A performance makes the poem come alive in a new and exciting way and is an authentic experience of a single live moment rather than a tailored, edited film.

We invite submissions that push the boundaries beyond the written form and give a different experience to simply reading a poem.

Submissions cannot exceed 5 minutes.

Forward Prizes for Poetry

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