Forward Prize Nominees at Book Festival

Congratulations to the brilliant poets shortlisted for The Forward Prize for Best Collection. We are very proud to say that four of the six names on the shortlist will be appearing at the Edinburgh International Book Festival this Summer.

Although tickets for Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney have sold out, tickets to hear Robin Robertson, Jo Shapcott and Sinéad Morrissey are all still available.

Don Paterson, the internationally renowned Scottish poet, has worked with the Scottish Poetry Library to select some world renowned poets for the programme, including Simon Armitage and Pulitzer winner Paul Muldoon, plus, of course, the four Forward prize nominees.

Ruth Padel, who chairs the judging panel for The Forward Prize, will also be appearing at the Book Festival and has selected a series of events looking at family relationships.  She will be in conversation with Lyndall Gordon exploring the tensions within Emily Dickinson’s family, and with Fatima Bhutto and Fay Weldon who share the way in which a parent’s loss affected their understanding of the world.  John Burnside and David Vann discuss sons’ relationships with their troubled fathers.

This year the Edinburgh International Book Festival programme enjoys a strong strand of poetry, from these newly-shortlisted Forward Poetry Prize nominees to inspirational new names on the scene.