University poets and award winners recognised by top national writing prize

Winner of the 2019 Manchester Poetry Prize, Momtaza Mehri, has been highly commended in the Forward Prize for Poetry 2020

University-linked poets are enjoying recognition by one the country’s most prestigious writing prizes.

The winner of the 2019 Manchester Poetry Prize, which is organised by the University’s Writing School and is the biggest UK award for unpublished writing, Momtaza Mehri, has been highly commended in the Forward Prize for Poetry 2020.

Other commendations include Romalyn Ante, who was winner of Manchester Poetry Prize 2017, Marvin Thompson, who was a finalist in Manchester Poetry Prize 2019, and Rachel Mann, MA and PhD alumnus and Visiting Teaching Fellow at the Writing School.

This builds on last month’s news that Malika Booker, poet and lecturer in the Writing School, is shortlisted for the Forward’s Best Single Poem with her poem The Little Miracles. Pascale Petit, who won the 2013 Manchester Poetry Prize, is up for Best Collection.

The Forward Prizes for Poetry 2020, honour excellence in contemporary poetry published in the UK and Ireland across three categories: Best Collection (£10,000), Best First Collection (£5,000) and Best Single Poem (£1,000).

After reading 208 collections and 205 single poems, the Forward Prizes’ judges announced 50 highly commended poets who have been featured in their annual Forward Book of Poetry. The anthology features the best work from this year’s new collections and literary journals published in the UK.

The commendations for Mehri, Thompson, Ante and Mann, in addition to Booker and Petit’s shortlisting, demonstrate the strength of the Writing School’s staff and the success of the Manchester Poetry Prize in championing emerging talent and kickstarting careers. The deadline for this year’s entries is September 18.

Mehri, a former Young People’s Laureate for London, has been recognised for her poem Haematology #2 which was one of four poems in her collection that won last year’s Manchester Poetry Prize. 

Mehri said: "Having my poem Haematology #2 commended in the Forward Book of Poetry 2021 is a wondrous feeling. Seeing it sit on the page alongside so many talented poets is the kind of thing that keeps one writing, keeps one going. I am humbled, and inspired, to be included in such company."

Booker’s poem The Little Miracles 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.

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.”

The winners of The Forward Prize for Poetry will be announced online on October 25.