Small Hands, the debut collection by UEA alumna Mona Arshi, has been shortlisted for the 2015 Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection, which is organized by the Forward Prize and is worth £5,000 to the winner. Mona (pictured) trained as a lawyer and worked for the human rights organization Liberty for several years before joining UEA. She graduated from the Creative Writing (Poetry) MA in 2011, and was the winner of the Magma Poetry Competition in 2012, when she was also one of ten poets selected for ‘The Complete Works’, an Arts Council development programme. In 2014 her poem ‘Bad Day In The Office’ was placed second in the Troubadour International Poetry Prize. She was also shortlisted for the Poetry School Pighog Poetry Pamphlet Competition, and was the joint-winner of the £10,000 Manchester Creative Writing Competition poetry prize. Small Hands was published by Liverpool University Press earlier this year. The winners of the Forward prizes will be announced at the Southbank Centre on 28th September
Mona Arshi shortlisted for Forward Prize
