Lucky Day by Richard Price (pictured, left) and Marabou by Jane Yeh have been selected by the Forward judges to join the short list of five books to contend for the Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection. Both poets are delighted that their work has been recognised in this way.

Richard Price's Lucky Day was published in February this year to wide acclaim (reviews can be read via the Lucky Day page of this website). Jane Yeh's Marabou will be published in October.

The winner, who will be announced on the 5th October, will be awarded £5,000. The other nominated books are Intimates by Helen Farish, To a Fault by Nick Laird and Scattering Eva by James Sheard.

A further Carcanet poet, Peter Scupham, has been short listed for the Michael Donaghy Prize for Best Single Poem for 'Seventy Years a Showman', which was printed in the magazine The Rialto. Peter Scupham is the editor of the forthcoming Ovid's Metamorphoses to be published by Carcanet in September.

We offer our congratulations to all the competing authors.