Poetry newslog July 2005

January 18, 2006 July 18, 2005
Forward shortlists
The shortlists of the annual Forward prizes, published in full in The Guardian, have been announced today. Awards are nominated in the three categories of best collection, best first collection and best individual poem. According to the jury, it has been an exceptional year for poetry, and "the standard was felt to be much higher than in previous years" where the first collections were concerned. Among the nominated poets are John Burnside, Alice Oswald, Nick Laird and Sarah Maguire.