Lisa Kelly: Why BSL poets should apply to the Forward Prizes for Poetry (BSL)

To see entry guidance with BSL translation, click here.

This year I’m excited to be one of the judges of the Forward Prizes for Poetry, and I’m even more excited that Deaf poets who create their poems in British Sign Language (BSL) are being encouraged to submit their poems to the Best Single Poem – Performed category.

The Forward Prizes for Poetry are the most influential awards for new poetry in the UK and Ireland, honouring fresh poetic talent alongside internationally established names. 

It was first awarded in 1992, and over the last three decades, celebrated names in the poetry world, who many school children are familiar with through their English Literature GCSE studies, have been awarded prizes, including Simon Armitage, the current Poet Laureate.

The prize is constantly evolving to ensure that poetry reaches as many people as possible and finds opportunities to connect and celebrate the variety of ways poetry is created. This aim led to the prize organisers introducing a category for performance poetry to embrace poets whose work is directed to the stage rather than the page. This category could have been created with Deaf poets in mind, whose visual poetry is naturally performed, and they can send a video of their poem in BSL for consideration by the judges.

Shortlisted poets for the Jerwood Prize for Best Single Poem – Performed are invited to attend the awards ceremony at the Southbank Centre in November, and perform their poem live, with the winner scooping £1,000. They will join poets shortlisted for the other categories which include Best Collection; Best First Collection and Best Single Poem – Written.

When I had the honour of being invited to be a judge, reading the rules for the Performance category, I wondered about the opportunity for Deaf poets who created their work in sign language and following conversations with the Forward Prizes team, it became clear that this category is ideal for sign language poetry which, by its nature, demands a poet inhabits a poem using their body. 

As a poet with single-sided deafness who has been learning BSL for the last seven or so years, I am hoping that many BSL poets submit their poems for the Performance category and give audiences a chance to see the power and creativity of BSL – its flow, rhythm and how emotion and meaning is conveyed through combining elements such as imaginative use of handshapes, facial expressions, body language and space. 

In the future, the category will no doubt develop further to reach more Deaf poets and make connections with the Deaf community, but this is an exciting beginning that absolutely champions the Forward Prizes remit to celebrate excellence in poetry and increase its audience by highlighting new talent while acknowledging prominent poets in the field. 

The British Deaf Association (BDA) runs the annual BSL Poet Laureate competition which it introduced in 2023, and the coveted award builds further on the strides BSL is making following its recognition with the BSL Act 2022.

Winning and shortlisted poets for the BSL Poet Laureate competition can submit their poems to the Forward Prizes Performed category for further recognition of their achievements.

My hope is that by encouraging Deaf poets to enter the Forward Prizes Performed category, there can be even more visibility of BSL, more appreciation of BSL poetry and more connections between Deaf and Hearing communities. 

In the future, let’s hope that BSL poetry and poets will be studied for the British Sign Language GCSE.

Click on the link below to find out more about how to submit a video of your signed poem. The submissions date is 16th March. If you’re a BSL poet who would like to submit, but feel this date might be too soon, you can get in touch with the Forward Prizes team by emailing info@forwardartsfoundation.org

Entry guidance – Forward Arts Foundation

Good luck!

To see entry guidance with BSL translation, click here.

Lisa Kelly is a poet with single-sided deafness based in London. Her second collection, The House of the Interpreter (Carcanet), was a Poetry Book Society Summer 2023 Recommendation. Her first collection, A Map Towards Fluency (Carcanet), was shortlisted for the Michael Murphy Memorial Poetry Prize 2021. She co-edited the anthology, What Meets the Eye?: The Deaf Perspective (Arachne Press) with Sophie Stone. She is Chair of Magma Poetry and co-edited the Grassroots (90); Solitude (83), Deaf (69) and Conversation (63) issues. She was shortlisted for the 2024 Forward Prizes for Poetry for Best Single Poem – Written; and is a Forward Prizes judge for 2025.