Sincere congratulations to former MA student Liz Berry for winning the 2018 Forward Prize for Best Single Poem for her poem, Republic of Motherhood!

The highly competitive prize was awarded on 18th September 2018 at the Royal Festival Hall. Read the winning poem (originally published in Granta) in its entirety and learn more about Liz here: http://www.forwardartsfoundation.org/poetry/the-republic-of-motherhood/

Royal Holloway's Department of English enjoys a long tradition of staff and alumni winning the Forward Prize for Best Collection, Best First Collection, and Best Single Poem. Please see the list below for more information:

1. Best Collection

2014: Kei Miller, The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion (Carcanet)  (past lecturer)

1999: Jo Shapcott, My Life Asleep (Oxford University Press) (current professor)

2.  Best First Collection

2015: Mona Arshi, Small Hands (Liverpool University Press) (current PhD student)

2014: Liz Berry, Black Country (Chatto & Windus) (past MA student)

2007: Daljit Nagra, Look We Have Coming to Dover! (Faber and Faber) (past visiting professor)

3.  Best Single Poem

2018: Liz Berry, The Republic of Motherhood, (Granta) (past MA student)

2004: Daljit Nagra, "Look We Have Coming to Dover!" (Poetry Review) (past visiting lecturer)

1997: Lavinia Greenlaw, "A World Where News Travelled Slowly" (current professor)