Bloodaxe Books of the Year 2025
Lode by Gillian Allnutt, shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize 2025
'Silence is prized, with more space on the page than text. Like Stevie Smith, she can write with a child’s-eye view (as in 'Berthe') that is moving and strange. Lode speaks to our confused and chaotic age. [...] In times of noise and bluster, Allnutt makes space for beauty.' – Graeme Richardson, The Sunday Times, on Lode, his Poetry Book of the Year 2025
‘...the best poetry collections were both serious and strong. Perhaps that’s down to maturity. Tipped for the TS Eliot Prize, British poetry’s crown, is the 76-year-old British poet Gillian Allnutt […] Deft and lovely, her 10th collection zips between her uncle’s death, fighting in the RAF, to her meeting with Elizabeth II in 2016 (“majestic, merciful, / the moon’s own soul”).’ – The Telegraph (Poetry Books of the Year 2025) on Lode
‘Gillian Allnutt’s 10th collection, Lode, plays with time and memory in works that feel prayer-like in their intimacy and simplicity…’ – Rishi Dastidar, The Guardian (The best poetry books of 2025)
Avidya by Vidyan Ravinthiran, winner of the Forward Prize for Best Collection 2025
‘As one of the judges for the 2025 Forward Prizes, I’ve had a full-on year of reading poetry collections. The variety of entries was wonderful and it was quite a journey through the wild ecosystem of contemporary poetry. For the first time ever – and recognising the need for cultural collegiality and new value systems – the main prize for best collection was shared by two writers: Karen Solie for Wellwater (Picador) and Vidyan Ravinthiran for Avidya (Bloodaxe). The former tackles environmental breakdown, corporate control, inheritance and family; the latter migration, war, mythology and belonging. Both are lyrical, humorous, astute and beautiful. Where politics obfuscates and fails to tackle issues honestly, poems are often far deadlier, more truthful and exacting. I can’t think of two more artful commentaries on today’s world or two more inviting entryways into modern poetry.’ – Sarah Hall, The New Statesman (Books of the Year 2025)
'Avidya shared the Forward prize for best collection this year (with Karen Solie’s Wellwater), and the only surprise was the sharing. Vidyan Ravinthiran was born in Leeds to Sri Lankan Tamil parents and he explores two worlds and two languages. [...] Avidya deals with political violence: Sri Lanka “a teardrop on the map” where “the pen is a torn-out tooth”. The collection traces difficult histories, personal and national, but this is really a book about complicated love, asking “why barbed wire’s besotted with its barbs”.' – Graeme Richardson, The Sunday Times (Poetry Books of the Year 2025)
‘Avidya by Vidyan Ravinthiran draws on the poet’s travels to the north of Sri Lanka, where his family are from, and his move to the US. As poems of journeys, they put me in mind at times of James Fenton, while Ravinthiran’s immersion in the English canon means linguistic delights throughout – “rivering, glitch-thronged, dubitable … belied, / believed, beloved”.’ – Rishi Dastidar, The Guardian (The best poetry books of 2025)
New Arcana by Jessica Traynor
‘Themes of memory, love and loss rub shoulders with Tarot in Dublin poet Jessica Traynor’s fourth collection. [...] a strikingly beautiful nod to the lasting echoes of a friendship - and one not without humour at times, too.’ – Lauren Murphy, RTÉ Culture (The best Irish books of 2025)
‘In poetry, Jess Traynor's fourth collection New Arcana is a brilliant, luminous work that blends the mystical and the contemporary, interrogating power, gender, and transformation with precision and lyric grace.’ – Elaine Feeney, Sunday Independent (Best Books of 2025)
First Rain in Paradise by Gwyneth Lewis
'First Rain in Paradise by Gwyneth Lewis is ‘a book about falling’. A must-read, especially for anyone who enjoyed her memoir, Nightshade Mother.' – Angela Graham, The Lonely Crowd (Books of the Year 2025, Part Two)
'Gwyneth Lewis’ First Rain in Paradise traces an arc from the crucible of childhood emotional abuse and persistent illness, moving toward a hard-earned renewal. For me, these poems mix the formal with a quiet informal intimacy. Trauma is deciphered in measured candour in a language functioning simultaneously as the site of injury and an instrument of reclamation.' – Taz Rahman, The Lonely Crowd (Books of the Year 2025, Part Three)
Parch by Menna Elfyn
‘Dau lyfr dw i wedi eu caruyn 2025: Parch (Bloodaxe) gan Menna Elfyn a Rhuo ei distawrwydd hi (Cyhoeddiadau'r Stamp) gan Meleri Davies. Mae'r ffordd mae Menna wedi rhoi ein hiaith fel rhodd i'r byd yn ysbrydoledig iawn; mae hi'n arwain y ffordd. Mae'r ffordd mae Mel a Menna yn sgrifennu am fywydau menywod (y pwer a'rboen) yn rbennig. Dau lais barddonol gwahanol ond hardd.’ – Non Tudur, Golwg (Dau lyfr dw i wedi eu caru yn 2025)
‘Two books I have loved in 2025: Parch (Bloodaxe) by Menna Elfyn and Roaring her silence (Cyhoeddiadau'r Stamp, 2024) by Meleri Davies. The way Menna has given our language as a gift to the world is very inspiring; she is leading the way. The way Mel and Menna are writing about women's lives (the power and the pain) is special. Two different but beautiful poetic voices.’ – Non Tudur, Golwg (Arts Highlights: Two books I've loved in 2025)
‘In October, Elfyn also published Parch (Welsh for ‘Respect’), her sixth collection in a long and lasting partnership with Bloodaxe. For the first time, many of the poems have been written directly in English.’ – Nation.Cymru (Cultural highlights 2025: Poetry Roundup)
'Parch is the Welsh word for respect. It can be extended, in English, to mean reverence. The range of new poems in English, with many translations from the Welsh by several authors including Elfyn herself, demands our attention. If only for the reverence to the imperatives in life; compassion and understanding. Over five designated sections they infuse and enlighten this collection. Illuminations.' – Hayden Murphy (Books of the Year: 2025)
Lives of the Female Poets by Clare Pollard
‘It's been a great year for poetry collections. I've enjoyed Dean Browne's After Party (Pan Macmillan), Keith Payne's Savage Acres (Dedalus Press), Father's Father's Father by Dane Holt (Carcanet Press), Vona Groarke's Infinity Pool (The Gallery Press), Isabelle Baafi's Chaotic Good (Faber) and Clare Pollard's Lives of the Female Poets (Bloodaxe Books).’ – Jessica Traynor, Sunday Independent (Best Books of 2025)
Beast by Pascale Petit, Poetry Book Society Recommendation
'Myths and magic, from the Camargue of Provence to Bodmin Moor in Cornwall where Parisian Pascale Petit now lives, inhabit these expansive and wonderful poems [...] She puts environment first in emotional tugs on our senses. There are long image inhabited lines. Unlike any contemporary I know she feeds her poems with the flora and fauna of the fantastic, conjured up from global experiences and effervescence. Do read her.' – Hayden Murphy (Books of the Year 2025)
Versus Versus: 100 Poems by Deaf, Disabled & Neurodivergent Poets, edited by Rachael Boast, Poetry Book Society Recommendation
'My pick is Versus Versus: 100 Poems by Deaf, Disabled & Neurodivergent Poets, edited by Rachael Boast. It contains astonishing poems by Hoshino Tomihiro, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Les Murray, Ona Gritz and many more.’ – Ali Lewis, Poetry News (2025 Holiday Reading Recommendations)
BACKLIST TITLES CHOSEN IN 2025
Earth House by Matthew Hollis, longlisted for The Laurel Prize 2023
'Earth House by Matthew Hollis is a profound inner journey rendered in lyrics of Eliotic power and restraint.’ – Helen Farish, Poetry News (2025 Holiday Reading Recommendations)
The Butterfly's Burden by Mahmoud Darwish, translated by Fady Joudah, winner of the Saif Ghobash–Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation 2008 (Arabic-English edition)
'I have been revisiting The Butterfly’s Burden by the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. The lyricism of his writing and imagination, and his attachment to his land, feel all the more important today.' – Elif Shafak, The Observer (Books of the Year 2025)
[03 December 2025]
