Rebound

From the Newbery Medal winning author of The Crossover, this verse novel is both moving and exhilarating, even for those who have no love of basketball.

Venus as a Bear

Shortlisted for the Forward Prize, Best Collection, Venus as a Bear is a collection that explores the strange affinities humans have for creatures, objects and places. Vahni Capildeo’s poetry deliberately resists purely biographical interpretation: the author elects to be identified as ‘they/them’ in the context of their work. Their advice for anyone starting out in poetry today is simple: ‘Delete Facebook. Go outdoors’.

England: Poems from a School

In this unique anthology, prize-winning poet Kate Clanchy brings together poems written by young people she has taught and mentored at Oxford Spires Academy. By turns raw and direct, funny and powerful, lyrical and heartbreaking, their poems document the pain of migration and the exhilaration of building a new land, an England of a thousand voices. This collection is easy to read and hard to forget, as fresh, bright and present as the young migrants who produced it.

Mama Amazonica

Set in a psychiatric ward and in the Amazon rainforest, Mama Amazonica reveals the story of Pascale Petit’s mentally ill mother and the consequences of abuse. From heartbreaking trauma, there emerge luxuriant and tender portraits of a woman battling for survival, in poems that echo the plight of others under duress, and of our companion species.

‘No other British poet I am aware of can match the powerful mythic imagination of Pascale Petit.’ Les Murray

On Balance

Winner of the Forward Prize for Best Collection and the 2017 Poetry Book Society Choice Award, On Balance is set against a backdrop of ecological and economic instability and revisits some of the great feats of human engineering to reveal the states of balance and inbalance that have shaped our history. Morrissey writes beautifully and with extraordinary fluency, framing images and themes with consummate skill.

Plum

Winner of the Ted Hughes Award for Poetry, Hollie McNish is considered one of the most important poets of the new generation. Plum is the story of her growing up and, candid, rude, funny, honest, it’s an absolute triumph.

‘She writes with honesty, conviction, humour and love. She points out the absurdities we’ve grown too used to and lets us see the world with fresh eyes.’ Kate Tempest

Viva Loch Lomond

If moral umbrage and rhetorical power are your thing, or if you merely appreciate a fine malt whisky, then a trip to the Graceland Caravan Park in the company of poet and comedian Elvis McGonagall is an absolute must.

‘Ebullient, intelligent and deeply amusing socio-political satire.’ Murray Lachlan Young.

Kingdom of Gravity

In Kingdom of Gravity, his powerful debut, Nick Makoha reflects on Idi Amin’s brutal rule in Uganda and the equally atrocious civil war that ousted him. A highly gifted poet, his book demonstrates the power of poetry to speak of difficult things in a way that enlightens, rather than merely shocking.

Velkom to Inklandt

In Velkom to Inklandt, Sophie Herxheimer’s brings vividly to life the voice of her no-nonsense Grent Muzzer, Liesel, whose somewhat abrasive Perspektiff she has never been able to forget. Playing on the difficulties of the English Lenkvitch, the poems tell of an immigrant’s attempts to fit in and make her home in a new country. Funny and moving, it demands to be read aloud!

100 Prized Poems: Twenty-five Years of the Forward Books

100 Prized Poems: Twenty-five years of the Forward Books is a distillation of the 25 annual Forward Books of Poetry published since 1992, a series highlighting the works commended each year for the prestigious Forward Prizes.