Carcanet Press - <b>Karen McCarthy Woolf shortlisted for the Forward Prize!</b>

We're delighted to announce that Karen McCarthy Woolf's An Aviary of Small Birds has been shortlisted for the Forward Prize's Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection! The Forward Prizes, now in their 24th year, are among the most prestigious literary awards in the UK and Ireland. They are unique in honouring both established and emerging poets and were founded to celebrate excellence in poetry and widen its audience. These are the shortlists chosen by the 2015 judging panel.

The Forward Prize for Best Collection (£10,000)

Ciaran Carson, From Elsewhere (The Gallery Press)
Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, The Boys of Bluehill (The Gallery Press)
Paul Muldoon, One Thousand Things Worth Knowing (Faber & Faber)
Claudia Rankine, Citizen: An American Lyric (Penguin Books)
Peter Riley, Due North (Shearsman)

The Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection (£5,000)

Mona Arshi, Small Hands (Liverpool University Press, Pavilion Poetry)
Sarah Howe, Loop of Jade (Chatto & Windus)
Andrew McMillan, ‘physical’ (Cape Poetry)
Matthew Siegel, Blood Work (CB Editions)
Karen McCarthy Woolf, An Aviary of Small Birds (Carcanet)

The Forward Prize for Best Single Poem (£1,000)

Maura Dooley ‘Cleaning Jim Dine’s Heart’ (Poetry Review)
Andrew Elliott ‘Döppelganger’ (Sonofabook)
Ann Gray ‘My Blue Hen’ (The Moth)
Claire Harman ‘The Mighty Hudson’ (TLS)
Kim Moore ‘In That Year’ (Poetry News)

Writer and broadcaster A L Kennedy, chair of the 2015 Forward Prizes jury, says: ‘My fellow judges and I were exhilarated to read experienced writers who were extending their abilities: it’s very clear that a wonderfully vibrant new generation of poets is emerging. It was also particularly heartening to note so many different sources of material, the wide-ranging scope and radical edge of poets working today. Amongst our finest practitioners, poetry is still a medium for the discussion and exploration of anything and everything – just as it should be.’

William Sieghart, chairman of the Forward Arts Foundation, which runs the prizes, says: ‘The diversity and ambition seen on the shortlists bear witness to a transformative moment for poetry publishing in the UK and Ireland.’

The judging panel includes BBC producer Emma Harding and the poets Colette Bryce, Carrie Etter and Warsan Shire, the first Young Poet Laureate for London. They read 205 collections and 227 single poems.

The prizes will be awarded at Southbank Centre on Monday 28 September. The 24th annual Forward Book of Poetry, containing the judges’ choice of the year’s poems will be launched on the same day, with a cover by the artist Georgie Hopton. The event takes place just before National Poetry Day – Thursday 8 October – and marks the start of a month of nationwide poetry celebrations and the opening of Southbank Centre’s 9th annual London Literature Festival.

The Prizes have been generously supported by Forward Worldwide since 1991, and by (the late) Felix Dennis since 2004.