Grace Nichols wins the £10,000 RSL Pioneer Prize for trailblazing women writers

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One of Britain's best loved poets has won a new prize for trailblazers. The Poetry Society reports that Guyanese born poet Grace Nichols has won the 10,000 pound RSL Pioneer Prize from the Royal Society of Literature

The prize honours pioneering British women writers, and this year's focus was poetry. Bernardine Evaristo founded it last year with 100,000 pounds from her Women's Prize Outstanding Contribution Award, enough to fund it for ten years

The judges were Ruth Borthwick, who chaired the panel, Sarah Howe and Judith Palmer, director of the Poetry Society. Palmer called Nichols a modest, sure footed trailblazer

Nichols said the win was a wonderful surprise. Evaristo said it is important to celebrate trailblazers while they are still around to enjoy it, and Nichols' new collection, The Tracks of My Name, is published by Bloodaxe on 19 November

Nichols' poems, from I is a long memoried woman onwards, have opened doors for so many writers and readers. Celebrating her now, with a new book on the way, feels perfectly timed. Evaristo using her own award money to fund this prize is a generous way to pass recognition on

Which Grace Nichols poem means the most to you? And should more prizes celebrate writers for a lifetime of work?

Grace Nichols wins the RSL Pioneer Prizepoetrysociety.org.uk