forward excelsior!

The shortlist for this year's Forward Prizes were announced yesterday. While we all know that prizes are a lottery, can't possibly give recognition to all who deserve it, etc etc, it is still jolly interesting to see what comes up on the lists. Not only that: it doesn't matter how much you've been reading or how up-to-the-minute you might have thought you were, you will never have read most of the books.

Or is that just me?

So, this year's shortlists are as follows:

Best collection prize (£10,000)

Domestic Violence by Eavan Boland

(Carcanet)
Gift Songs by John Burnside (Jonathan Cape)
The Drowned Book by Sean O'Brien (Picador)
Birds with a Broken Wing by Adam Thorpe (Jonathan Cape)
The Harbour Beyond the Movie by Luke Kennard (Salt Publishing)
Beasts of Nalunga by Jack Mapanje (Bloodaxe)

Best first collection prize (£5,000)

Twenty Four Preludes and Fugues on Dimitri Shostakovich by Joanna Boulter (Arc Publications)
Galatea by Melanie Challenger (Salt Publishing)
Look We Have Coming to Dover! by Daljit Nagra (Faber and Faber)
Andraste's Hair by Eleanor Rees (Salt Publishing)

Best single poem prize (£1,000)

The Hut in Question by David Harsent (Poetry Review)
Thursday by Lorraine Mariner (The Rialto)
Dunt by Alice Oswald (Poetry London)
The Day I Knew I Wouldn't Live Forever by Carole Satyamurti (The Interpreter's House)
Goulash by Myra Schneider (The North)
The Birkdale Nightingale by Jean Sprackland (Poetry Review)

Okay, so the awful truth is that of all these books the only one I've read is Daljit Nagra. To which end, I will try to celebrate by writing a little thing about it over the weekend.

There are two news angles that are being picked up in the main newspapers (see links above): one, Jack Mapanje is an ex-political prisoner who is just now proving to the UK that sometimes giving people asylum can be good for the host country as well; and two, Luke Kennard is, by ten years, the youngest person ever to have been shortlisted for Best Collection. So it's pretty exciting.

There's a third news angle, though, and one the papers aren't picking up even though I remember it from last year when Donut Press had two books shortlisted for Best First Collection. It's simply the rise of the small/independent publisher in poetry. Of course it's good news for me, in a way: Salt, who will be publishing my book, have got three out of the ten books on the list. (Of course, the capacity of Salt to do that was one reason I went to them in the first place.)

I wonder why no one is discussing it, though. Booksellers normally love a prize. Here's a prestigious prize, worth ten grand to the main winner, and over a third of the shortlistees are from small indie presses, just at this critical moment when we're all talking about the stranglehold the big multinationals have on the book trade - and neither the booksellers nor the review sections in the papers seem to be picking that story up.

Everyone knows that the Booker is a great opportunity for sales for its shortlisted authors. The shops do big displays, the publishers push the books. So where's the trade support for the shortlisted poetry books? Eh? All this talk about how no one "reads" or "buys" (take your pick of operative verb) - let's see the money. What encouragement are the readers/book-buyers getting? Are the reps all extra-busy this week with shortlisted poets? Waterstones window, anyone?

This feels like a relatively incoherent post. I have to lie down (yes, all this talk of poetry sales has given Ms B the vapours!). I'll edit it later if it needs it...

PS - Salt has set up a blog to keep track of the two months until the announcement of the winners. Check it out here. As well as fab author pics and info, the site also lists links to reviews, and articles about the prize, in the mainstream press and on blogs. Very informative.

In the mean time I will be acquiring and reading the books and discussing their various charms and merits.