This year, for the first time, the Forward prizes for poetry introduced a category to honour performed as well as written poetry. Polish-born, Birmingham-based poet and professor Bohdan Piasecki has become the first winner of the prize’s new “best single poem – performed” award for his poem Almost Certainly.
Meanwhile Malika Booker won the “best single poem – written” category for the second time with her poem Libation, while Jason Allen-Paisant’s Self-Portrait as Othello was awarded the £10,000 best collection prize. Bad Diaspora Poems by Momtaza Mehri won the Felix Dennis prize for best first collection.
