Sarah Howe has won the Forward prize for best collection, one of the UK’s most prestigious poetry awards, for Foretokens, a collection that explores new parenthood, the death of her father and her mother’s early life in Hong Kong.

Howe was announced as the winner during a ceremony hosted by Joelle Taylor at London’s Southbank Centre on Saturday evening, and will receive £10,000.

Howe was born in Hong Kong to an English father and a Chinese mother. Foretokens, her second collection, comes a decade after Loop of Jade became the first debut to win the TS Eliot prize . Foretokens was also shortlisted for the 2025 TS Eliot prize.

Reviewing Foretokens for the Guardian, Rishi Dastidar called it “a quite brilliant return”, praising Howe’s “keen, probing intelligence”.…