Forward Book of Poetry 2018

by Various, Andrew Marr (Foreword)

The Forward Book of Poetry 2018 showcases a selection of the best contemporary poetry published in the British Isles over the last year, including the winners of 2017's prestigious Forward Prizes for Poetry. It is introduced by Andrew Marr, chairman of the Forward Prizes judges. Their final recommendations give a strong sense of the variety, vitality and wit of poetry today, making this anthology - the 26th in an annual series - valuable to both first-time poetry readers and those keen to find more new poetry to enjoy.

Genres: Poetry

155 pages, Paperback

Published September 7, 2017

About the author

Various is the correct author for any book with multiple unknown authors, and is acceptable for books with multiple known authors, especially if not all are known or the list is very long (over 50).

If an editor is known, however, Various is not necessary. List the name of the editor as the primary author (with role "editor"). Contributing authors' names follow it.

Note: WorldCat is an excellent resource for finding author information and contents of anthologies.

Reviews

[Calum Mackenzie · Rating 1 out of 5]

What utter, time wasting drivel! I nearly had this as a DNF but it’s a poetry book and a quick read. This contains some of the worst poetry I’ve ever read - and that’s coming from someone who’s taught English for 14 years.

I’m astounded that poems that are 3 or 4 pages long can have so many words but say so little. This is rubbish poetry masquerading as ‘profound writing’.

I won’t read any more of the ‘forward book of poetry’ collections. Maybe 3 poems were passable but I 100% recommend getting your teeth into Sassoon, Cope, Milligan, Sissay, Zephaniah, Auden, Rossetti etc instead

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

Backwards!!!!..poetry isn't moving forward if this trawl of p-c.dross is any indication. Only the well-known exponents of the poetic arts are worth the effort...Armitage, Muldoon, Longley...
It's collections like this pile of p**h that have killed my love for poetry almost stone-dead...just the headstones remain...to taunt the muse!

[Joe Avary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some good poetry, but mostly shite poetry

[Peter Longden · Rating 5 out of 5]

A magnificent, disparate collection of words.
“A word after a word after a word is power.” — Margaret Atwood
What is always to be liked about the Forward Book of Poetry collections each year is the variety of collections of carefully selected words that make up the poems that are brought together; that and the ingenuity with which the poets express themselves and take forward (pardon the pun!) their art. But it isn’t just their art. It is everyone’s art, shared from the poet’s imaginations and experiences to the audience to interpret and appreciate with surprise, candour and a knowing nod when the penny drops.
Each year something seems to underpin the poems, a reflection perhaps of what was happening in the year of writing, a contemporary theme that poets at the time were, coincidently picking up on. This makes the Forward collections a little insight in time by well known and new poets alike. Such as Sean O’Brien, a central figure in the contemporary poetry world, featuring again in the Forward Prize. Children’s stories are revisited with Jessica Mookherjee’s ‘Ursa Minor’ and Penelope Shuttle with ‘Doreen Shows Me Her Photos of Hamelin’
As Forward Prize for Best Collection winner Nuar Alsadir says: ‘The mind doesn’t see images, hear, smell, perceive in tidy succession,’ she says. ‘That cacophonous chaos, which visual arts often capture so vividly, is exciting to me.’ What Nuar does is makes some sense of that cacophony and offer a poetic image for the reader to feel and enjoy.
I’ve lost count of the number of the Forward collections I have read and look longingly for more to read, finding something in every volume to delight, something to shock, something to fascinate; and, above all, lots to be enjoyed.

[Dane Cobain · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is yet another of the books that I won as part of a National Poetry Day competition, and this one gathers together some of the best poetry from across the UK and Ireland throughout 2017. That makes it a great little anthology of contemporary poetry and a fantastic book to get started with if you want to see what modern poets are working on. This isn’t Wordsworth, it’s contemporary poetry that asks the reader a lot of contemporary questions.

I was actually impressed by the quality of the work in this, even though I was already expecting to enjoy it, and I also thought it was just the right length. Any longer and I might have got bored, but this whet my appetite and then dished up several courses of delicious, nutritious poetry.

[L.T. Hewitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the idea, and think it's a great way to stay up-to-date with contemporary poetry by having an anthology like this of the best poems each year. There are some I liked and some I disliked, but that's just personal preference.

However, I strongly object to 'Secretions or Obstructions' by Nisha Ramayya. It's not a poem by any stretch of the imagination. It's a set of research notes for an essay.

Many poems push the form of poetry, but this one 'poem' contains absolutely no poetic techniques. The only section of this lengthy trawl which seems like poetry is part 6, which at the end is revealed to be taken in full from a different poet anyway...

[Isabelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such strong poets in this book - often I found myself looking at one thing and then looking at the world as a whole...the poems transported me.

I enjoyed this even more than the 2017 book. Poets that stood out were: Jodie Hollander, Elisabeth Sennitt Clough (her heart breaking poem about stepping into the shoes of the son her father wishes she was) and Elizabeth - Jane Burnett.

(Just realised I have best loved poems by the female writers! This was unbiased as far as I'm aware...)

[Adrian · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great snapshot of modern poetry. I was inspired to buy the Ocean Vuong collection, and a previous Sinéad Morrissey one too. Ian Patterson's winning poem was a bit beyond me, but reading about it helps. The second half of individual highly commended poems was a bit difficult to get through since there is such variety of tone/topic/format but a few names to watch out for.

[Catherine Hamilton · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. This is not poetry. Some of the essays in here disguising themselves as poetry poorly, but are good essays. Very very few poems you could describe as musical or lyrical. Overall, pretentious with ridiculous over use of unnecessary spacing.
However, there were around 5 poems that I really liked. So I couldn't rate it lower.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always find it fascinating to read the shortlisted candidates side by side knowing who won. A great mix this year and I discovered a handful of new poets I'd like to look into, which is always a bonus.

[D'Arcy Welch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poetry may not appeal to everybody, but in this book there will most definitely be a poem you will love!

[Cooch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three and a half stars

This year, although there were some good, and a few very good, poems, there were no great ones. This book is still worth a read.