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Poetry Prize 2021

THE WINNER 2021

Arrow, by Sumita Chakraborty (Carcanet, 2020) was announced as the winner of this year's prize at a Virtual Award Night in July 2021!
Read more... 

AWARD NIGHT 2021

Watch the virtual award night readings with shortlisted and winning poets, hosted by Stephen Sexton.
Now on the QFT Player...

THE SHORTLIST 2021

The Station Before

by Linda Anderson (Pavilion Poetry, 2020)

Rose With Harm

by Daniel Hardisty (Salt Publishing, 2020)

Growlery

by Katherine Horrex (Carcanet, 2020)

Cannibal

by Safiya Sinclair (Picador Poetry, 2020)

About the Judges 2021
Nick Laird, Stephen Sexton and Elaine Feeney

The Seamus Heaney Chair of Poetry Nick Laird, is joined this year by our colleague Stephen Sexton, and poet Elaine Feeney. 

The panel will compile a shortlist of up to five books, to be announced in June 2021. The winner will be announced in July 2021.

Elaine Feeney is a writer from the west of Ireland. She has published three collections of poetry including The Radio was Gospel and Rise. She lectures in poetry at the National University of Ireland, Galway, where she is also Creative on the Tuam Oral History Project. In 2017 she wrote the multi award-winning drama piece for the Liz Roche Company, WRoNGHEADED.  

Her debut novel As You Were (Vintage) won the 2021 Kate O’ Brien Award and was shortlisted for Novel of the Year at the Irish Book Awards, The Rathbone Folio Prize, Dalkey Literary Awards and it was an Observer Best Debut of 2020. Feeney’s work has been broadcast on BBC and RTÉ and most recent publications include; Poetry Review, The Guardian, Winter Papers, Five Dials, The Stinging Fly, Copper Nickel, The Irish Times, Oxford Poetry and The Art of the Glimpse: 100 Irish Short Stories. 

Nick Laird is a poet, novelist, screenwriter, and critic from Northern Ireland. He is the author of four poetry collections, including Feel Free (2019) and Go Giants (2013), and the children's book Weirdo (2021), written in collaboration with his wife Zadie Smith. He teaches at New York University and is the Seamus Heaeny Chair of Poetry at the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s. He lives in London and New York. 

Stephen Sexton is a poet and educator from Northern Ireland. His debut collection If All the World and Love Were Young (Penguin, 2019) was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. His pamphlet, Oils (Emma Press, 2014) was the Poetry Book Society’s Winter Pamphlet Choice of that year. He has won numerous awards including the UK National Poetry Competition, and an Eric Gregory Award. Stephen is a lecturer in Poetry at the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s.

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Seamus Heaney First Collection Poetry Prize 2021 - Date: 1/07/2021

Date: 1/07/2021
Time: 8:00PM - 9:00PM
Location: Online
Category: Social

First Collection Poetry Prize
  • First Collection Poetry Prize
  • Poetry Prize 2021
  • Poetry Prize 2020
  • Poetry Prize 2022
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