Friday, July 24, 2009

Strong shortlist hailed for Forward poetry prize
Mark Brown, art correspondent in The Guardian, Thursday 23 July 2009

Don Paterson. shortlisted for his new collection, Rain.
Photograph: Guardian/Murdo Macleod

Organisers of the Forward prize, one of the UK's most important poetry prizes, have hailed the strength of the contemporary scene, with a record number of submissions that were whittled down to three shortlists revealed today.
All six names shortlisted for this year's £10,000 best collection prize are well-established, with the youngest being Don Paterson, 45, who won the Forward best first collection 16 years ago. This year he is nominated for his yet-to-be-published Rain. A titan of an older generation is also nominated with Peter Porter, 80, a previous winner, shortlisted for his 18th collection Better Than God. The Guardian praised it as "a densely fleshed book by a poet at the height of his powers".

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