Malika Booker shortlisted for prestigious Forward Prize for Poetry

Malika Booker said it was "heartening" to be shortlisted

Malika Booker’s poem The Little Miracles, inspired by caring for her mother, has been shortlisted for Best Single Poem in the Forward Prizes for Poetry 2020.

The Forward Prizes for Poetry 2020 honour excellence in contemporary poetry published in the UK and Ireland in three categories. Best Single Poem seeks the best poem from magazines and competitions, and the winner is awarded £1,000.

Booker’s poem The Little Miracles was originally commissioned by Magma Literary magazine, when guest editors Adam Lowe and Yvonne Reddick created an interdisciplinary collaboration between poets, counsellors and psychologists.

The poem is inspired by her work with a psychologist, who helped Booker come to terms with her mother’s recovery from a stroke and her early stage dementia, encouraging her to communicate and share more positive and meaningful interactions.

Prestigious and heartening

Booker, Lecturer in Creative Writing at Manchester Writing School, at Manchester Metropolitan University said: “It is prestigious and heartening to be selected for this category for the second time in two years. I am mostly overwhelmed as this poem is about my mother ensuring that one of my biggest fans is also being honoured. This means a lot to me.”

“I am thankful to Yvonne Reddick and Adam Lowe as guest editors and Magma for selecting my poem to be submitted for consideration. I am also overjoyed to have been shortlisted with such amazing poets.”

Booker is an award-winning poet, writer and multi-disciplinary artist, and was the inaugural Poet-In-Residence at the Royal Shakespeare Company. Next year sees the publication of an anthology of the poetry collective that she founded back in 2001, Malika’s Poetry Kitchen.

I am mostly overwhelmed as this poem is about my mother ensuring that one of my biggest fans is also being honoured.

In addition to Booker’s nomination, Fiona Benson, who was a finalist in the 2012 Manchester Poetry Prize, which is run by Manchester Writing School, has also being shortlisted for Best Single Poem.

Pascale Petit, who was awarded the 2013 Manchester Poetry Prize, and who returned as a judge in 2017, has been shortlisted for the £10,000 Best Collection award.

Kim Moore, MA and PhD alumni, is on the judging panel which is chaired by writer, critic and social historian Alexandra Harris, alongside poets Roger Robinson and David Wheatley and journalist Leaf Arbuthnot.

The winners will be announced on Sunday 25 October 2020 and the judges’ selection of shortlisted and highly commended poems will be published in the annual Forward Book of Poetry 2021 on 10 September 2020.