The 2015 Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowships have been awarded to three Irish poets, Rody Gorman, Michelle O’Sullivan and Paul Perry.
Patrick Kavanagh’s widow, Katherine, left all rights in her husband’s works and all royalties from them to trustees who were directed to apply the income to help Irish poets, in their middle years, who are in need of assistance.
Gorman was born in Dublin in 1960 and now lives in the Isle of Skye. He has published several poetry collections, including Eadar Fiaradh is Balbh na h-Oidhche (diehard, Callander, 2007) in English, Irish and Scottish Gaelic. His selected poems in Irish and Scottish Gaelic, Chernilo, were published by Coiscéim in 2006. He has toured with Scottish poets as part of Turas na bhFilí, and has worked as writing fellow at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, University College Cork and the University of Manitoba. In 2010, poems of his won the Scottish Gaelic prize in both the Wigtown and Strokestown Poetry Competitions. His poetry has been praised for its energy and epigrammatic concision.
O’Sullivan was born in Chicago in 1972 and grew up in Co Sligo. She has a BA and MA from the University of Hertfordshire and worked in England as a primary teacher. She has also lived in Greece and the US. She lives in Co Mayo with her two children and works as a home tutor. Her first collection, The Blue End of Stars, was published in 2012 by Gallery. In 2013 it was shortlisted for the Michael Murphy Memorial Prize and won the Strong Shine Poetry Award. Her poems have been praised for their memorable images, especially of the entanglements of water and light.
Perry was born in Dublin in 1972 and lives there with his wife and three children. His collections are The Drowning of the Saints (Salmon, 2003); The Orchid Keeper (Dedalus, 2006); The Last Falcon and Small Ordinance (Dedalus, 2010); and Gunpowder Valentine: New and Selected Poems (Dedalus, 2014). He teaches creative writing at Kingston University, London, and also at University College, Dublin. He was curator of the Poetry Now poetry festival in Dún Laoghaire. His poems have been described as both delicate and penetrating, firmly and directly written. With Karen Gilleece he published a novel, The Innocent Sleep by Karen Perry (Henry Holt, 2014).
