Deryn Rees-Jones is Highly Commended in the Forward Prizes
Deryn Rees-Jones is Highly Commended in the Forward Prizes
It was announced this week that ‘Firebird’ from Deryn Rees-Jones’ new collection Erato is amongst those highly commended by the judges in the Forward Prizes for Poetry. Other highly commended poets include Carol Ann Duffy, Inua Ellams, Hugo Williams, Ann Wroe and Morgan Parker.
Deryn’s poem can be found alongside a wide range of contemporary poetry in the Forward Book of Poetry 2020, which is available here.
View the full list of highly commended poets on the Forward Arts Foundation website.
About the book
Named after the Greek muse of lyric poetry, Erato combines documentary-style prose narratives with the passionate lyric poetry for which Rees-Jones is renowned. Here, however, as she experiments with form, particularly the sonnet, Rees-Jones asks questions about the value of the poet and poetry itself. What is the difference, she asks in one poem, between a sigh and a song? Erato’s themes are manifold but particularly focus on personal loss, desire and recovery, in the context of a world in which wars and displacement of people has become a terrifying norm.