They were founded in 1992 by William Sieghart with the aim of celebrating excellence in poetry and increasing its audience.

The prizes do this by identifying and honouring talent: collections published in the UK and Ireland over the course of the previous year are eligible, as are single poems nominated by journal editors or prize organisers.

Each year, works shortlisted for the prizes – plus those highly commended by the judges – are collected in the Forward Book of Poetry.

The awards have been sponsored since their inception by the content marketing agency Bookmark, formerly Forward Worldwide.

For the 2023 prizes, a new category for outstanding performance of a poem was added to the list of awards.