The 2024 Poetry Shortlist
Self-Portrait As Othello
Jason Allen-Paisant
Poetic memoir and ekphrastic experiment, Self-Portrait as Othello imagines Othello in the urban landscapes of modern London, Paris and Venice and invents the kinds of narrative he might tell about his intersecting identities.
CATEGORY WINNER / BOOK OF THE YEAR
The Home Child
Liz Berry
In 1908, 12 year old newly-orphaned Eliza Showell boards a ship that will carry her from the slums of the Black Country to Nova Scotia. Inspired by a true family story, a spell-binding novel-in-verse about a child far from home.
Bright Fear
Mary Jean Chan
In her second collection, Mary Jean Chan’s poems engage fearlessly with intertwined themes of identity, multilingualism and postcolonial legacy.
