Police violence, heritage and love: Forward poetry prizes reveal shortlists 'made to last'

Native American poet Natalie Diaz among contenders for best collection award with Postcolonial Love Poem, alongside Pascale Petit and Caroline Bird

A poetic exploration of the wounds the US has inflicted on its indigenous people, written by one of the few remaining speakers of the Mojave language, has made the shortlist for the prestigious Forward prize for best collection.

As Black Lives Matter protests sweep the world in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd, Natalie Diaz – a MacArthur “Genius” grant recipient and former professional basketball player – writes in her collection, Postcolonial Love Poem, of police violence against Native Americans. In her poem American Arithmetic, she notes that “Native Americans make up less than / 1 percent of the population of America”, but “Police kill Native Americans more / than any other race”.

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