A poet with only two books to his name is vying with others who have published up to 20 to win Britain's most valuable prize for verse.

Paul Farley's second volume, The Ice Age, was shortlisted yesterday for the £10,000 Forward best collection prize alongside two veterans, Peter Porter, 72, and John Fuller, 64.

Farley, 37, whose first book, The Boy from the Chemist is Here to See You, was among the celebrated debuts of the 1990s, joins two other newish poets in the list.

They are David Harsent, who is also an opera librettist, for his collection Marriage, to the Irish writer Vona Groarke for Flight. Writers published in the UK or Ireland are eligible for the award.

Farley is writer in residence for the Wordsworth Trust. John Fuller is a fellow of Magdalen college, Oxford. Groarke is a curator in Dublin.

Five newly published poets are shortlisted for the £5,000 best first collection award, sponsored by the bookshop Waterstone's. They are Chris Considine, for Swaledale Sketchbook; Tom French, for Touching the Bones; Stuart Pickford, for The Basics; Henry Shukman, for In Dr No's Garden; and Julian Turner, for Crossing the Outskirts.

The judges, headed by poet Michael Donaghy, narrowed the shortlists from more than 100 collections. Winners will be announced on October 9.