Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award facts for kids

The Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award is a special prize given in Ireland for new poetry. It's for poets who haven't published a full collection of poems before. To win, a poet must be born in Ireland, have Irish citizenship, or live in Ireland for a long time. Poets enter a competition each July. The award was started in 1971 by the Patrick Kavanagh Society to remember the famous poet Patrick Kavanagh.

The competition has had different people in charge over the years. Since 2009, the main judge and president of the society has been Brian Lynch, who is a poet, writer, and screenwriter. Many other well-known poets have also been judges, like Brendan Kennelly and Paula Meehan. The award is now run by the society along with the Patrick Kavanagh Centre in Inniskeen.

Since 2011, the award is given out at the end of September. This happens during the yearly Kavanagh Weekend at the Patrick Kavanagh Centre.

Award Winners

Winners from 1971 to 1979

• 1971: Sean Clarkin is a poet from Wexford. His book is called Without Frenzy (1974).
• 1973: Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin is a poet and critic from Dublin. She is also a member of Aosdána, a group of Irish artists. Her poetry books include Acts and Monuments (1973) and The Sun-fish (2009).
• 1974: Paul Durcan is a poet from Dublin and a member of Aosdána. He has written many books, such as O Westport in the Light of Asia Minor (1975) and Praise In Which I Live And Move And Have My Being (2012).
• 1975: John Ennis is a poet from Waterford. His books include Night on Hibernia (1976) and Near St Mullins (2002).
• 1976: Aidan Carl Matthews is a poet, author, and playwright from Dublin. His poetry books include Windfalls (1977). He also wrote plays and stories.
• 1977: Thomas McCarthy is a poet from Cork and an Aosdána member. His poetry works include The First Convention (1978) and The Last Geraldine Officer (2009). He also wrote novels.
• 1978: Rory Brennan is a poet from Dublin. His works include The Sea on Fire (1978) and The Old in Raphallo (1996).
• 1979: Michael Coady is a poet from Carrick-on-Suir and an Aosdána member. His books include Two for a Woman, Three for a Man (1980) and Going By Water (2009).

Winners from 1980 to 1989

• 1980: Nuala Archer is a poet from Cleveland. Her books include Whale on the Line (1981) and Inch Aeons (2006).
• 1981: Harry Clifton is a poet and novelist from Dublin. He is also an Aosdána member. His poetry books include The Walls of Carthage (1977) and The Winter Sleep of Captain Lemass (2012).
• 1982: Peter Sirr is a poet from Dublin and an Aosdána member. His books include Marginal Zones (1984) and The Thing Is (2009).
• 1983: Greg Delanty is a poet from Vermont. His books include Cast in the Fire (1986) and The Ship of Birth (2007).
• 1984: Tom O'Malley is a poet from Navan. His poetry book is Journey Backward (1988).
• 1985: Roz Cowman is a poet from Cork. Her collection is The Goose Herd (1989).
• 1986: Padraig Rooney has poetry books like In the Bonsai Garden (1988) and The Fever Wards (2010). He also wrote a novel.
• 1987: Anthony Glavin (who passed away in 2006) was a poet and music professor. His poetry book is The Wrong Side of the Alps (1989).
• 1988: Angela Greene (who passed away) was a poet. Her poetry book was Silence and the Blue Night (1993).
• 1989: Pat Boran is a poet and author from Dublin. He is also an Aosdána member. His poetry books include The Unwound Clock (1990) and The Next Life (2012).

Winners from 1990 to 1999

• 1990: Sinéad Morrissey is a poet from Belfast. Her books include There Was Fire in Vancouver (1996) and Parallax (2013).
• 1991: Sheila O'Hagan is a poet from Dublin. Her works include Peacock's Eye (1992) and Along the Liffey: Poems & Short Stories (2009).
• 1992: Aine Millar is a poet from Dublin. Her collection is Goldfish in a Baby Bath (1994).
• 1993: Conor O'Callaghan is a poet from Manchester. His poetry books include The History of Rain (1993) and The Sun King (2013).
• 1994: Celia de Fréine is a poet and playwright from Dublin. She mainly writes in the Irish language. Her English poetry book is Scarecrows at Newtownards (2005).
• 1995: William Wall is a poet and author from Cork. His poetry books include Mathematics and Other Poems (1997) and Ghost Estate (2011). He also wrote novels and short stories.
• 1996: Bill Tinley is a poet from Maynooth. His book is Grace (2001).
• 1997: Fr. Michael McCarthy is a priest and poet from Durham. His collections are Birds' Nests and Other Poems (2003) and At the Races (2009).
• 1998: Carmel Fitzsimons is a poet from London.
• 1999: Eibhlin nic Eochaidh is a poet from Leitrim.

Winners from 2000 to 2009

• 2000: Joseph Woods is a poet from Dublin. He was also the Director of Poetry Ireland from 2001 to 2013. His books are Sailing to Hokkaido (2001) and Cargo (2011).
• 2001: Ann Leahy is from Dublin. Her collection is The Woman who Lived Her Life Backwards (2008).
• 2002: Alice Lyons is a poet and artist from Roscommon. Her collection is Staircase Poems (2006).
• 2003: Manus McManus is a poet and film writer/director from Dublin.
• 2004: Joseph Horgan is a poet from Cork. His poetry collections include Slipping Letters Beneath the Sea (2008) and An Unscheduled Life (2012).
• 2005: Dave Lordan is from Greystones. His poetry collections include The Boy in the Ring (2008) and Lost Tribe of the Wicklow Mountains (2015).
• 2006: Enda Coyle-Greene is a poet from Skerries. Her collections are Snow Negatives (2007) and Map of the Last (2013).
• 2007: Conor Carville is a poet from Reading. His first collection is Harms Way (2013).
• 2008: Geraldine Mitchell is a poet from County Mayo. Her collections are World Without Maps (2011) and Of Birds and Bones (2014). She also wrote novels for young people.
• 2009: Martin Dyar is a poet from Dublin and County Mayo. His first collection is Maiden Names (2012).

Winners from 2010 to 2019

• 2010: Connie Roberts is from Co. Offaly and moved to the United States in 1983. Her first collection is Little Witness (2015).
• 2011: Helena Nolan was born in Kilkenny and works in Dublin.
• 2012: Caoilinn Hughes is a writer born in Galway. Her first collection, Gathering Evidence (2014), won the Irish Times Strong/Shine Award in 2015.
• 2013: Rafiq Kathwari lives in Omeath, Co. Louth. He was born in Kashmir. His collection is In Another Country (2015).
• 2014: John Fitzgerald lives in Co. Cork. He was a librarian at University College Cork until 2022. He has published two collections, The Time Being (2021) and Long Distance (2024).
• 2015: John Mee lives in Cork and is a law professor at University College Cork. His first collection The Blue in the Blue Marble was published in 2024.
• 2016: Laurence O'Dwyer was born in Tipperary. He has published two collections: Tractography (2018) and Catalan Butterflies (2022).
• 2017: Ruth Timmins was born in Dublin but now lives in Curracloe, Co. Wexford.
• 2018: Conor Cleary was born in Tralee but now lives in Glasgow. His pamphlet, Priced Out, was published in 2019.
• 2019: Scott McKendry is from Belfast. His pamphlet Curfuffle was chosen as a Poetry Book Society Autumn Choice in 2019. His first collection Gub was published in 2024.

Winners from 2020 to now

• 2020: No award was given this year.
• 2021: Jerm Curtin is from Boherbue in north west Cork. He now lives in Spain and teaches English. He won for his collection A Drowned City, which imagines Cork City under water due to climate change.
• 2022: Ben Keatinge was born in Dublin and studied at Trinity College Dublin.
• 2023: Lauren O'Donovan is from Cork. She helped start Lime Square Poets and HOWL New Irish Writing.
• 2024: Simon Costello is from Offaly. His first small book of poems, Saturn Devouring, was published by The Lifeboat Press.

Anthology

Dancing with Kitty Stobling: Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award Winners, 1971–2003 is a book that collects poems from many of the award winners. It was put together by Antoinette Quinn and published in 2004.