This week in our poetry news round up we look at the newly announced longlists for the 2026 Forward Prizes for Poetry and some of the names making the cut.
Forward Prizes for Poetry Reveal 2026 Longlists
The longlists for the 2026 Forward Prizes for Poetry were announced on Monday June 22nd. Founded back in 1992 by William Sieghart, the Forward Prizes have grown to become the most influential awards for new poetry in the UK and Ireland, celebrating fresh voices alongside some of the biggest established names in the field.
Over the last three decades the prizes have been handed to the likes of Simon Armitage, Thom Gunn, Seamus Heaney, Ted Hughes, Carol Ann Duffy, Claudia Rankine and Jackie Kay, so a longlisting is no small thing for a poet at any stage of their career.
There are four prizes up for grabs each year. The Forward Prize for Best Collection is worth £10,000, the Jerwood Prize for Best First Collection comes with £5,000, and there are two single poem awards – Best Single Poem (Written) and Best Single Poem (Performed) – each worth £1,000.
This year’s judging panel is chaired by the novelist, memoirist and essayist Sarah Moss, whose books include Ghost Wall and the recent My Good Bright Wolf. She is joined by the poet and novelist Romalyn Ante, emeritus professor and poet WN Herbert, Glasgow-based poet and spoken-word artist Michael Mullen, and the Nigerian-British writer Yomi Ṣode. Interestingly, Mullen knows the territory from the other side, having been shortlisted himself for the Jerwood Prize for Best First Collection last year with his debut Goonie.
The Names to Watch
Carcanet Press had a particularly good week, landing five of its poets on the longlists. Joe Carrick-Varty and Matthew Welton were both longlisted for Best Collection, with Before Violence and Small Birds Singing respectively, while Roma Havers picked up a nod in the Jerwood Prize for Best First Collection for The Natural Way. Sasha Dugdale and Sinéad Morrissey, the latter a former T.S. Eliot Prize winner, were both longlisted for Best Single Poem (Written) for work that appeared in PN Review.
There was good news too for the small press world. Di Slaney and Polly Atkin were both longlisted in the Best Single Poem category for poems published in the debut issue of The Aftershock Review, a reminder that the Forward judges continue to cast their net well beyond the bigger publishing houses.
The shortlists will be announced later in the summer, with the winners revealed at a ceremony in the autumn. As ever, the longlists serve as a handy reading list for anyone wanting to keep an eye on the best of contemporary poetry coming out of the UK and Ireland. Worth noting as well that the Forward Arts Foundation also runs National Poetry Day, which this year falls on Thursday October 1st – so plenty to keep poetry lovers busy in the months ahead.
You must register to comment. Log in or Register.