The Forward Books of Poetry

Posted by Ray Schaufeld on Sun, 01 Feb 2015

Boxes of treats! The Arts Council started this annual competition in 1992 publishing the top entries There is serious prize money for best collection, best first collection and best first poem.Usually around 140 pages of solid quality,and illustrates true diversity of style and topic. There appears to be no length limit either min or max to the entries.

Quirky poems by names unknown to me stand out The last Cafe in the West by Stephen Plaice in 1994 and unexpected topics by the famous; The Shield-Scales of Heraldry,Les Murray 1996. Lots of good long poems and sequences too; I would love to see more of us, myself included, trying our hand at poetry sequences. Storytelling though poetry; way to go.

Comments

Submitted by VeraClark on

Sounds really good, Elsie.

 

Submitted by Ray Schaufeld on

Easy to reserve from the library too, Vera and you will sometimes find them in book exchanges. I came across the 1996 anthology on a shelf in the Torquay backpacker's this year,have been enjoying them since then.