Live performances to light up poetry prizes

A poetry prize is to be awarded for the first time at a live public event at the Southbank Centre, with readings of all the nominated contemporary poets from actors including Juliet Stevenson, Helen McCrory and Natascha McElhone.

The Forward Prizes for Poetry are seen as the most prestigious award for the art, with previous winners including Seamus Heaney, Carol Ann Duffy and Ted Hughes.

This year sees the widest field of entries in the prizes’ history, with 96 publishing houses, 162 collections and 159 poems considered.

Jeanette Winterson, who chaired a judging panel consisting of the actor/director Samuel West, the journalist David Mills and the poets Paul Farley and Sheenagh Pugh, said: “This is a powerful year for poetry. We made our choices looking for poems that used a lit-up living language and had a sense of purpose.”

Kirsty Peart, UK producer of WordTheatre, said: “We wanted to make poetry accessible for people — and we wanted to cast the right voice to bring the life to the poem. Actors love it because it gives them a chance to give the reading a little bit of magic.”