Victoria Chang wins the £10,000 Forward Prize for Best Collection

Victoria Chang, Marjorie Lotfi, Cindy Juyoung Ok and Leyla Josephine have been announced as the winners of the 2024 Forward Prizes for Poetry.

The four winners were announced by host Joelle Taylor, chair of judges Craig Charles from BBC 6 Music and poet Kayo Chingonyi at a ceremony opening for the Durham Book Festival.

Chang won the £10,000 Forward Prize for Best Collection for With My Back to the World (Corsair), while Lotfi was awarded the £5,000 Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection for The Wrong Person to Ask (Bloodaxe Books). In the Written Single Poem category, Juyoung Ok won the £1,000 Forward Prize for Best Single Poem for "Ward of One", originally published in Poetry London. Meanwhile, Josephine triumphed in the Performed Single Poem category and was awarded the £1,000 Jerwood Prize for Best Single Poem for "Dear John Berger".

Judge Jane Clarke said: “Whether deeply serious or playful, formally inventive or traditionally lyrical, these collections and single poems share an ability to enrich our lives, helping us understand ourselves, each other and the world around us in all its wonder, tragedy and grace.”

Charles added: “We judges read such an incredible selection of work across the last six months, and it took five hours and a mountain of emails just to decide on the shortlists. It was a challenge to winnow down further to a single winner in each category—all the shortlisted collections and poems spoke to us in multiple ways. Collectively, the winners, the shortlists and all the commended poems are a tribute to how vibrant poetry is today.”