Don Paterson Wins Forward Poetry Prize

Posted on October 8, 2009

The BBC reports that Scottish poet Don Paterson has won the £10,000 Forward Poetry Prize for his anthology entitled Rain.

Paterson, who won best first collection in 1993, is only the second poet in the prize's history to take both awards.
Emma Jones has become the first Australian to win the debut prize for her work, The Striped World.

Judge and former Forward prize winner David Harsent had high praise for Paterson's prize-winning anthology, "It is a book of great seriousness by a particularly gifted writer. It has enormous emotional depth and he is a very skilful writer in real command of his craft. Some of the work in it is tremendously moving and one or two of the poems really unsettled me - the book will stay with me."

The announcement coincides with Britain's National Poetry Day. You can see a list of the Forward Poetry Prize shortlist here.