‘Very dynamic’ finalists for the awards show influences from Greenlandic, Caribbean creole, Scots, and Kurdish languages
From Kurdish writer Choman Hardi’s poetry telling the stories of the survivors of genocide to Trinidadian Vahni Capildeo’s examination of the alienation of the expatriate, the shortlist for the Forward prize for best poetry collection marks a “complete resurgence” and a “breaking down of barriers” in poetry, according to the chair of judges for the prestigious award.
The shortlist for the £15,000 Forward prize for best poetry collection, won in the past by big names including Don Paterson and Sean O’Brien, was announced by writer Malika Booker. She said that this year’s contenders were writers “who are challenging poetry, who are using the formal constraints but are really modern, really expanding what we know as poetry and what we know as the English language”.
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