Forward Prize for Poetry unveils 2010 shortlist
21st July 2010
Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney has been included on the shortlist for the 19th Forward Prize for Poetry's best collection accolade.
Heaney was nominated for the GBP 10,000 prize for Human Chain, with Lachlan Mackinnon's Small Hours and Through the Square Window by Sinead Morrissey also appearing on the shortlist.
Robin Robertson's The Wrecking Light, Rough Music by Fiona Sampson and Jo Shapcott's Of Mutability complete the 2010 shortlist.
Poet and author Ruth Padel, chair of the judging panel, highlighted the shortlist's 'unusually wide range' and claimed it is indicative of the strength of modern British poetry.
'It was tough, whittling a rainbow down to a shortlist and giving up many books we really loved, which in other years certainly would have been on the shortlist,' she added.
Last year, the 18th Forward Prize for Poetry was won by Scottish poet Don Paterson for his collection Rain.
Previous winners of the honour include Mick Imlah, Sean O'Brien, Robin Robertson and David Harsent.