News | Wednesday, 28th October 2020
Malika Booker’s tender personal poem captures prestigious Forward Prize
‘The Little Miracles’ scoops prize for Best Single Poem
Poet and lecturer Malika Booker has won Best Single Poem in the Forward Prizes for Poetry with The Little Miracles, inspired by her experience of caring for her mother.
The Forward Prizes for Poetry honours excellence in contemporary poetry published in the UK and Ireland across three categories with the £1,000 prize for Best Single Poem awarded to the best poem from magazines and competitions.
The Little Miracles is a tender account of caring for her mother in the aftermath of a stroke. The poem took inspiration from her work with a psychologist, who helped Booker come to terms with her mother’s recovery from the stroke and early stage dementia, encouraging her to communicate and share more positive and meaningful interactions. Judges praised its “warmth, frustration and humour”.
It was originally commissioned by Magma Literary magazine, when guest editors Adam Lowe and Yvonne Reddick created an interdisciplinary collaboration between poets, counsellors and psychologists.
Booker, Lecturer in Creative Writing at Manchester Writing School, at Manchester Metropolitan University, said: “I am overjoyed to have won the Forward Best Single poem prize for my poem The Little Miracles the day after I celebrated my birthday. I am also joyful because the judges’ decision not only acknowledges my writing, but the subject matter - which praises the strength of Clara Elizabeth Booker Boyce - the woman who gave birth to me.
“In a way the poem is a testimony to her tenacious spirit and how vital She is to our family. The poem is also strangely relevant to this time and seems to resonate with the personal storms we are all wrestling with during this global pandemic. It is both an honour and a validation for my devotion to poetic practise and can encourage other writers to keep going.”
The Forward Prizes for Poetry winners were announced during an online ceremony celebrating poetry, hosted by the British Library.
It is both an honour and a validation for my devotion to poetic practise and can encourage other writers to keep going.
The judging panel included Kim Moore, alumnus of Manchester Metropolitan’s Creative Writing MA and PhD, alongside poets Roger Robinson and David Wheatley, journalist Leaf Arbuthnot and writer, critic and social historian Alexandra Harris.
Harris, who chaired the judging panel, said: “The Little Miracles is a poem about love and patience: you can feel time moving in its rhythm of work and relief. Every word is freighted with the effort and desire to communicate. The poem breathes with warmth, frustration and humour.”
The judges’ selection of shortlisted poems are featured in the Forward Book of Poetry 2021, which also contains more than 50 poems highly commended by judges.
Click on the player below to listen to Booker reading her award winning poem The Little Miracles.
