”Since I found mother collapsed on the
Malika BookerLittle Miracles
kitchen / floor, we siblings have become
blindfolded mules / harnessed to carts
filled with strain, lumbering / through
a relentless storm.”
The Results
Forward prize for best single poem ”
WINNER
Forward Prizes 2020
Booker, co-founder of the influencial collective Malika’s Poetry Kitchen, won the £1,000 prize for best single poem with The Little Miracles, documenting her experience of caring for her mother in the aftermath of a stroke
She had previously refused to write about her mother’s illness. This poem of witness captures the reality of my family’s emotional upheaval.” Judges praised The Little Miracles for its “warmth, frustration and humour”. The judging panel was chaired by writer, critic, and social historian Alexandra Harris alongside poets Kim Moore, Roger Robinson and David Wheatley, and journalist Leaf Arbuthnot.
English