The Green Parcel

Longlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection 2026

The rural terrain of John Challis’s second collection provides a new lens for exploring history, class and work, our relationship to the natural world, and cycles of growth and decay. Much of his debut collection The Resurrectionists concerned working lives in the city: his father a London cabbie, his grandfather a market porter. Here his focus shifts to a crumbling stately home in Northumberland brought to life through the voices of the grounds as well as those who inhabit it and maintain it. London is at a distance. We find ourselves beyond, in backyards, on motorways, in fields, searching for the green patch in Kent, where an East End family picked hops in the summer.

Despatches from the early years of fatherhood reflect on ageing, loss and patience. Poems set in the American west consider the idea of freedom. And on the eve of his execution, thief and folk hero Jack Sheppard flees into the forest of his mind. Confronting the tension between wanting to belong and the desire to escape, these poems acknowledge and reckon with the people and places that haunt us.

'...for Challis, when thoughts crystallise they do so with force [...] These poems are sharp and satisfying – and can be consumed in stolen moments of parental calm. While Challis’s 2021 debut collection, The Resurrectionists, dwelled in the working lives of the city – a London cabbie father, a market porter grandfather; cockle pickers, butchers and barrow boys – this second book has a greener and grander canvas.' – Jade Cuttle, The Observer (Poetry Books of the Month)

‘Here is articulation and exhibition of things described that manages to enter almost the mythic in world-building. […] The Green Parcel does not lend itself to easy summation, and nor should it. Poetry of this consistently high quality is for the reader far more than the critic. I stand by my recommendation to judge it by its cover because its cover tells us that it is a poetry collection by John Challis, and that means we need to read it.’ – Patrick Davidson Roberts, Wild Court 

‘This substantial collection represents a shift in the poet’s focus, as well as a broaden-ing of his lens and concerns, while also being deeply personal. There are some close, elegant poems about fatherhood, such as ‘Kindling’, as well as poems that capture intimate moments, such as the gorgeous and questioning ‘North Shields Nocturn’.'  – Will Mackie, New and Recent Poetry from the North: Summer 2026, on The Green Parcel

‘John Challis’s second collection examines the lives of those who both work on, and are part of, the landscape.  […] A fantastic collection which interrogates belonging while recognising that one’s “green and pleasant land / is the stuff of poetry”.’ – Shash Trevett, Poetry Book Society Summer 2026 Bulletin, on The Green Parcel

John Challis was born in London in 1984. His pamphlet, The Black Cab (Poetry Salzburg, 2017), was a 2019 New Writing North Read Regional title. His first book-length collection, The Resurrectionists, was published by Bloodaxe in 2021. His second full-length collection, The Green Parcel, was published by Bloodaxe Books in 2026 and was longlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection 2026.

He has held several residencies. In 2015 he was a poet-in-residence with the Northern Poetry Library and chosen as one of the Poetry Trust’s Aldeburgh Eight. His other residencies have included ones at Keats Shelley House in Rome, and at Seaton Delaval Hall, a National Trust property in Northumberland. A limited edition pamphlet, Hallsong: Poems for Seaton Delaval Hall, was published by the National Trust and New Writing North in 2022, with all the poems featured in Hallsong, a film collaboration with filmmaker Christo Wallers.

His poems have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and 4, selected as Poem of the Week in The Guardian and The Telegraph, and published in journals including Poetry London, The Poetry Review and Poetry Ireland Review. He has received a Pushcart Prize and a Northern Writers’ Award for his work and was Highly Commended in the 2021 Forward Prizes for Poetry. John has also written reviews and essays and produced poetry for public art projects in Northumberland. He holds a PhD in Creative Writing from Newcastle University, where he worked as a Research Associate. He now teaches at York St John University and lives in York.