The winner of this year's Irish Times Poetry Now Award is Dublin-born Paddy Bushe for his collection On A Turning Wing, published by Dedalus Press. The poet will be presented with the €2,000 prize today as part of the Poetry Now festival in Dún Laoghaire.
The other nominated poets this year were Katie Donovan for Off Duty (Bloodaxe), Paula Meehan, Geomantic (Dedalus Press ), Thomas McCarthy for Pandemonium (Carcanet Press ) and Macdara Woods, Music from the Big Tent (Dedalus Press).
The annual prize, which has been presented for the past 11 years, has previously been won by several of the country's major poets including Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon, Michael Longley, Harry Clifton, Sinéad Morrissey, Dennis O'Driscoll and Theo Dorgan. The winner of last year's Irish Times-Poetry Now award was Caitríona O' Reilly for Geis (Bloodaxe Books ).
This year's judges were broadcaster and journalist Olivia O'Leary; editor of The Stinging Fly, Declan Meade; and poet and critic Michael O'Loughlin.
‘Meticulously crafted’
The judges declared Bushe’s collection to be a “meticulously crafted book filled with the authentic voice of poetry. The collection ranges wide over a series of nourishing encounters with art and music, with nature and family, but also engages passionately with the darker side of Irish cultural life. The clarity, honesty and integrity of the work stand out.”
Paddy Bushe writes in both English and Irish and is also a translator. He lives in Waterville, Co Kerry and has published 10 collections, including To Ring In Silence, New and Selected Poems (Dedalus, 2008 ). He was the editor of Voices at the World's Edge: Irish Poets on Skellig Michael (Dedalus, 2010 ). He has been a recipient of the Oireachtas and Michael Hartnett poetry awards and translated the work of Scottish poet Sorley MacLean into Irish.
