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Mick Imlah wins 2008 Forward prize

9 oktober 2008
Twenty years after his first poetry collection Birthmarks was published to critical acclaim, Scottish poet Mick Imlah has won the £10,000 Forward prize for best collection with his second, The Lost Leader.

The Forward prizes, launched in 1991 by William Sieghart, inventor of the UK’s National Poetry Day, direct £16,000 and public attention towards a collection by an established poet, a first book by a newcomer; and also an individual poem. This makes the annual Forward Book of Poetry a kaleidoscope of what has been appearing for the last 12 months in the UK, and this year there were a lot of poems published by small presses as well as big houses. 

The Forward awards ceremony also saw 35-year-old Kathryn Simmons take the £5,000 best first collection prize for Sunday at the Skin Launderette. The £1,000 best individual poem prize went to Don Paterson's poem about his unrequited love for an obscure Eastern European singer, beating Seamus Heaney's ‘Cutaways’.

Forward prize for Best Collection: Mick Imlah for The Lost Leader
Felix Dennis prize for Best First Collection: Kathryn Simmons for Sunday at the Skin Launderette
Forward prize for Best Single Poem in memory of Michael Donaghy: Don Paterson for "Love Poem for Natalie 'Tusja' Beridze"
Bron: guardian.co.uk, 8 October 2008 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/oct/08/forward.prize.mick.imlah and guardian.co.uk, 9 October 2008 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2008/oct/09/forward.prizes.poetry
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