Vidyan Ravinthiran's Avidyā and Karen Solie's Wellwater won the 2025 Forward Prize for Best Poetry Collection, marking the first time co-winners have been named in the award's history, the Bookseller reported. They will each receive the joint prize and take home £5,000 (about $6,665).
Isabelle Baafi's Chaotic Good took the £5,000 Jerwood Prize for Best First Collection, while "At Least" by Abeer Ameer topped the £1,000 (about $1,335) best single poem--written category and Griot Gabriel's "Where I'm From" won £1,000 for best single poem--performed.
Judge Lisa Kelly commented: "Karen Solie's Wellwater and Ravinthiran's Avidyā address the urgent challenges of our time--climate crisis; war and migration--with personal insight and philosophical depth. Isabelle Baafi's Chaotic Good is a feat of formal brilliance which immerses the reader in the disorientating dynamic of a toxic relationship from which escape is hard-fought and transformative. Abeer Ameer's 'At Least' harnesses the power of a lullaby to interrogate the duplicity of language in reports about Israel's bombing of Gaza. Meanwhile, Griot Gabriel's 'Where I'm From' captures community and personal identity with rhythmic force and spellbinding lines."
Chair of judges Sarah Hall said: "In such divisive times, with wars, genocide, the rollback of rights and environmental protections, and an erosion of truth taking place, it was buoying to read poetry from all corners of the globe and find within its diversity common ground--light, song, sincerity, humor, wisdom and courage. It's more vital than ever to be culturally collegiate.... This prize is nothing if not radical, ingathering, communitarian and soul-searching; qualities clear and present in the work of the finalists. They are also technically brilliant, unique, indelible works."
---
The shortlist has been selected for the 2025 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction. The winner, who will be announced December 1, will receive a jeroboam, a case of Bollinger Special Cuvée, the complete set of the Everyman's Library P.G. Wodehouse collection, and a pig named after the winning book.
Chair of judges Peter Florence said: "What a fabulous year for comic fiction. We're thrilled with this bumper shortlist of eight great reads. There is a delightful mix of comedies here from darkest satire and period farce to lightest humour. I can't wait for the final jury meeting. Whichever novel wins will be a comic banger Wodehouse might enjoy."
The shortlist:
A Little Trickerie by Rosanna Pike
Friends of Dorothy by Sandi Toskvig
Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis
Last Acts by Alexander Sammartino
Murder Most Foul by Guy Jenkin
The Book of George by Kate Greathead
The Persians by Sanam Mahloudji
The Unfinished Harauld Hughes by Richard Ayoade