This week in our poetry news round up we look at the two poets who have made it onto this year’s Booker Prize shortlist and at what’s in store for National Poetry Day next week.
Two Poets Shortlisted for the 2026 Booker Prize
The shortlist for the 2026 Booker Prize was announced on Tuesday, and poetry lovers have good reason to pay attention this year, as two of the six authors in the running are best known for their verse. Luke Kennard and Rebecca Perry sit on the list alongside former winners Marlon James and Douglas Stuart, as well as Elizabeth Strout and M. John Harrison.
Kennard has published seven full-length poetry collections, and Black Bag is his third novel. He is a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Birmingham and was picked out as one of the Poetry Book Society’s ‘Next Generation Poets’ in 2014. His shortlisted novel takes its cue from a real psychology experiment from the 1960s. It follows a struggling actor who agrees to spend a university term attending lectures zipped inside a large black bag, so researchers can see how the other students react. Critics have singled it out as a comic tour de force, with one reviewer saying she laughed on almost every page.
Perry’s entry is May We Feed the King, her first novel, which already picked up the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize in July. The story moves between a reluctant monarch in an unnamed medieval court and a present-day curator dressing public displays in a historic palace. Before turning to fiction, Perry published two full-length poetry collections, was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize and won the Michael Murphy Memorial Prize. Reviewers have noted that her background as a poet shines through in the lyricism of her prose.
There’s a poetic flavor to the judging panel too. Chaired by the classicist Mary Beard, it includes the award-winning poet Raymond Antrobus and Patricia Lockwood, a novelist, poet and essayist, alongside musician Jarvis Cocker and critic Rebecca Liu. They whittled down 163 submissions to reach the final six.
The winner will be announced on Monday 9th November at a ceremony at Old Billingsgate in London and will take home £50,000, while each shortlisted author receives £2,500. Should M. John Harrison win, at 81 he would become the oldest winner in the prize’s history.
National Poetry Day 2026 Celebrates ‘Wonder’
With less than a week to go, preparations are well under way for National Poetry Day, which takes place next Thursday, 1st October. Organized by the Forward Arts Foundation, it always falls on the first Thursday of October. Poetry pops up everywhere on the day, from schools and libraries to cultural venues, with around 1.5 million people taking part.
This year’s theme is Wonder, following on from Together in 2025 and Counting in 2024. The organizers have teamed up with Hot Poets, the UK’s leading climate and literature organization, and the poet Michael Rosen to explore climate science and action through poetry. Schools can sign up for free resources, including a 30-minute assembly on the morning of the day featuring Rosen, Hot Poets Liv Torc and Chris Redmond and two Young Poet Laureates, as well as themed poems covering climate change, biodiversity, climate justice and the natural world. It’s a fitting choice of theme, as poets have been capturing the wonders of the natural world for centuries, from William Wordsworth to William Blake.
As always, events are being held right across the country. In London, the Poetry Pharmacy on Oxford Street will host a day-long celebration of poetry in the many languages spoken by the city’s communities, with poets reading first in their mother tongue and then in English translation. The Poetry Society is running two open mics: an online one for poets aged 14 to 25 through its Young Poets Network, and one for over-18s at the Poetry Café in London. And for those who can’t wait, the celebrations start early in Eastbourne, where the winners of a National Poetry Day competition will read their poems at the Towner Art Gallery on Saturday 26th September.
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