The  S T R O K E S T O W N
i n t e r n a t i o n a l
P O E T R Y  P R I Z E S

Féile Idirnáisiúnta Filíochta Bhéal Áth na mBuillí  

  
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
   
  Competition Judges for 2009        
             
  Category 1: The Strokestown International Poetry Prize      
             
   


Photo by Lyn Moir

   
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
             
    John F. Deane Penelope Shuttle Joseph Woods    
             
    Born on Achill Island in 1943, John Deane founded Poetry Ireland and The Poetry Ireland Review in 1979. He has published several collections of poetry and has been shortlisted for both the T.S.Eliot prize and The Irish Times Poetry Now Award. He was elected Secretary-General of the European Academy of Poetry in 1996. His latest poetry collection is The Instruments of Art, Carcanet 2005. In Dogged Loyalty, essays on religious poetry, was published by Columba in 2006; his latest fiction is The Heather Fields and Other Stories, Blackstaff Press 2007. He is a member of Aosdána. In 2007 the French Government made him 'Chevalier de l’ordre des arts et des lettres'. In 2008 he was visiting scholar in the Burns Library of Boston College, USA. Penelope Shuttle has lived in Cornwall, England, since 1970. Her most recent collection, Redgrove's Wife was published in 2006, re-issued 2007, by Bloodaxe Books and was shortlisted for The Forward Prize for Best Single Collection, and for the T. S. Eliot Prize. Her 1988 collection, Adventures with my Horse (OUP), was reissued in 2007 by The Poetry Book Society. She is a Hawthornden Fellow and a tutor for The Poetry School, The Arvon Foundation, and Second Light Network. She is also current Chair of the Falmouth Poetry Group, one of the longest-running poetry workshops in Britain. She was one of the judges for the UK National Poetry Competition 2007. Joseph Woods is a poet and Director of Poetry Ireland. Born in 1966 he studied science and also holds an MA in Creative Writing. A winner of the Patrick Kavanagh Award, his two poetry collections, Sailing to Hokkaido (2001) and Bearings (2005) are both published by the Worple Press, UK. In 2007 he co edited Our Shared Japan (Dedalus Press) an anthology of contemporary Irish poetry about Japan.    
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
             
             
  Category 2: The Strokestown Irish/Gaelic/ Poetry Prize      
             
             
   

Máire Ní Annracháin

Máire Ní Annracháin is currently Senior Lecturer in the School of Celtic Studies, National University of Ireland Maynooth (NUIM), Co Kildare. She is a graduate of UCD, but studied for her doctorate under Professor Seán Ó Tuama in UCC, where her thesis was on the poetry of Sorley Maclean. She has a long-standing interest in Irish and Scottish Gaelic literature and much of her work is focused on the application of current streams of international literary theory to those literatures. She has been chairperson of Glór na nGael for the past six years and is also a member of the Irish Placenames Commission and of the board of Sabhal Mor Ostaig on the Isle of Skye.

Léachtóir Sinsearach i Scoil an Léinn Cheiltigh, Ollscoil na hÉireann Má Nuad. Céimí de chuid UCD; dochtúireacht ó UCC faoi stiúr Sheáin Uí Thama, le tráchtas ar fhilíocht Shomhairle MhicGill-Eain. Spéis aici le fada i litríocht Ghaeilge na hÉireann agus na hAlban.  Cuid mhaith dá cuid oibre faoi láthair dírithe ar bhealaí a aimsiú le sruthanna den chritic idirnáisiúnta a chóiriú don anailís ar an litríocht sin. Ina cathaoirleach ar Ghlór na nGael le sé bliana anuas, agus ball freisin den Choimisiún Logainmneacha agus de bhord na n-iontaobhaithe i Sabhal Mor Ostaig ar an Oileán Scitheanach.

    
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
             
  Category 3: The Percy French Prize for humorous verse    
             
    Declan O'Brien        
             
    Like Percy French, Declan O'Brien is a civil servant, lives in Dublin and is a renowned versifier and wit. In 2005 he won the Strokestown Satire Prize with his poem The Corinthians Write Back and he has also been a prizewinner at the Bard of Armagh. He is a frequent contributer to RTÉ Radio 1's Liveline on its Funny Friday session, and is currently reckoned to be one of the funniest exponents and performers of comic poetry in the country. His play Sypan Summer was performed in 2006. He has produced a CD, Decalogues, of some of his poems and performances.    
       
       
             
             
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