blog.saltpublishing.com » The Forward Prizes

‘Sublime, precise, darkly foreboding’ – Galatea by Melanie Challenger

Lee — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 10:39:29 +0000

These are the words of Harold Bloom, commending Melanie Challenger’s Galatea. It was shortlisted for the 2007 Forward Prize for Best First Collection.

I asked Melanie about her feelings towards being nominated:

How did it feel when you discovered Galatea had been shortlisted?

Naturally, as there are not massive audiences for new poetry, I was most pleased by the idea that this kind of acknowledgement might garner me more readers: readers who would enjoy or resist certain poems, respond in ways both heartwarming and challenging.

What were your emotions on the night of the award?

I do have mixed views about awards, or certainly about the concept of winners. I always feel it’s a shame that we have to think in terms of one book because people write such different kinds of works with very different effects and purpose, and I think it can be difficult for society to decide which they think is most important because we ought to encourage diversity instead. (This might sound like sour grapes…but I don’t mean it to!).

I didn’t go to the awards because I’m intensely private as an individual. But I knew they were going ahead and at least felt pleased that I had been nominated and that poetry is still valued publicly.

How has being shortlisted impacted on your career?

On a small level, I believe it has brought me more readers and has led onto some opportunities. Far more important than any professional sidelines though is the determination that I think that little bit of focus can instill: the twist of grit to produce something better, to redress one’s failings in the first effort and to care even more about language and poetry than before.

Buy a copy of Galatea from the Salt online store, complete with 20% off.

Our Forward curse strikes yet again…….

Lee — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:42:38 +0000

There’s an air of disappointment in the office today. Siân Hughes’ The Missing just missed out on the Forward Best First Collection award.

The prize went to Emma Jones’s The Striped World published by Faber. Don Patterson’s Rain, another Faber title, won the Best Collection award. Robin Robertson won Best Single Poem for ‘At Roane Head’. Congratulations to the winners on their success.

Chris, Charlotte and I were at Somerset House last night, along with a number of other Salt authors, to cheer Siân on. We left disappointed.

Yet with the announcement today of The Missing being shortlisted for the Aldeburgh First Collection Prize, we have renewed hopes that she will collect a well-deserved prize this year.

It’s Forward Prize week….

Lee — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 09:57:48 +0000

…and we’re celebrating our Forward history

On Wednesday evening (7th October) we shall discover the winners of this year’s Forward Prizes. Our very own Siân Hughes is in the running to win Best First Collection for The Missing. We’ll be at Somerset House to cheer her on.

Salt has a rich history of Forward shortlisted titles.

In 2008, Simon Barraclough was nominated for Best First Collection for Los Alamos Mon Amour.

2007 saw three of our authors nominated. A Best Collection tip for Luke Kennard’s The Harbour Beyond the Movie, and Best First Collection nominations for Melanie Challenger’s Galatea, and Eleanor Rees’ Andraste’s Hair.

In 2006 we celebrated our first Forward shortlisting for Ian Gregson’s debut collection Call Centre Love Song.

We’re very proud of our previous shortlisted books. But so far a Forward-winning title has proved elusive. We’re hoping on Wednesday night this will no longer be the case.

In order to celebrate the fantastic achievements of our previously nominated authors, we’re asking them to revisit their own Forward Prize experiences.

Find out what it was like to be in the running for the UK’s most prestigious poetry award. Discover what happened in the aftermath of the awards, and how being shortlisted impacted on their careers.

Buy the books and read for yourself why each of these titles deserved to be rated amongst the nation’s elite.

P.S – Don’t forget to check back on Thursday to find out the winners……and read our account of what could be a very interesting (if not drunken) evening.

Joseph Hutchison enjoys some extraordinary restraint

Chris Hamilton-Emery — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 21:06:00 +0000

“Just a note here about a slim Salt Publishing publication I recently read, Siân Hughes’s The Missing. The Missing is a first book, but it’s author is no novice at life.”

Peter McLachlin celebrates Hughes’s use of idiom

Chris Hamilton-Emery — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 21:00:00 +0000

“Siân Hughes’ use of idiomatic language is superb, and often has the effect of lulling the reader into a feeling of the quotidian, leaving him or her unprepared for the poem’s ending.”

Tony Williams on Siân Hughes

Chris Hamilton-Emery — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 18:01:00 +0000

“Towards the end of last week I read Sian Hughes’s The Missing, shortlisted for this year’s Forward Prize for Best First Collection. I haven’t read the other books on the shortlist so I can’t comment on who should win, but I can say that this one’s really good – a brief, affecting, plain and magnificent book. Read it if you get the chance.”

Matthew Stewart on Siân Hughes

Chris Hamilton-Emery — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 17:58:00 +0000

“For once, a collection outdoes its blurb – as mentioned in a previous post, “The Missing” is an exceptional book in the context of contemporary U.K. poetry.

“Siân Hughes’ subject matters in “The Missing” are signposted from the start. Her lost third child and the end of a relationship are themes that run though the book. “The Send-Off”, for example, is a superb poem and a winner of the Arvon Prize. Its value lies in peeling layer after layer off a story, telling it through details, encouraging us to explore and identify ourselves with it. This last point is a key success – Siân Hughes engages us incredibly well.”

Siân Hughes longlisted for The Guardian First Book Award

Chris Hamilton-Emery — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 07:07:00 +0000

The only poetry on the longlist is The Missing by Siân Hughes, a collection that deals with parenting, illness, loss, regret and ill-fated love.

Read more …

Siân Hughes shortlisted for the Felix Dennis Best First Collection Prize

Chris Hamilton-Emery — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 05:40:00 +0000

Siân Hughes has been shortlisted for the Felix Dennis Best First Collection Prize in the 2009 Forward Prizes for her collection The Missing.