Tag Archives: poetry

A CLARE writer has won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. Bilingual poet Doireann Ní Ghríofa won the €10,000 prize, which is awarded for a body of work by a young Irish writer that shows exceptional promise. The award follows the recent publication of her collection of poetry, Clasp. Announcing the winner, Ireland chair of poetry and selection committee member Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin said, “Doireann NI Ghríofa is a poet to watch, with a fresh view of the world: apparently ordinary houses, shops, common objects and activities. The sureness of her touch and the skill with which she handles language and shapes her poems are almost invisible but it is through them that she achieves the feat of making us look again at the usual and illuminates its pulsating strangeness. “She is a brilliant addition to the distinguished succession of bilingual poets writing in Irish and English.” Doireann said that contrary to some descriptions in the media, she is a …

Kerry native, Maureen Cronin, is rapidly approaching her 100th birthday but she comes into the ‘Champion offices without fail every Thursday. She comes in to drop in her unique poetry and to have the chat. Hear Maureen tell her story on ‘The Local Eye’ on RTÉ 1 this Thursday evening at 7.30pm.

BALLYVAUGHAN-based writer Karen McDonnell has won the 2014 WOW award for poetry.  The prize is awarded annually by Wordsonthewaves, which publishes an anthology of fiction and poetry by shortlisted and winning writers. Two of McDonnell’s poems were long listed with one, Upstream, the Bliss of Heaven making the final shortlist. Part of a historical song-cycle, the poem’s subjects are Margaret Roper and her father Thomas More, who was condemned to death in the reign of Henry VIII. Commenting on his choice for the WOW! Poetry Prize, judge Knute Skinner wrote: “Is there a word out of place? I don’t think so.” McDonnell’s travel writing, fiction, non-fiction and poetry have been published in The Irish Times, Crannóg, The Clare Champion, by the Clare Poets, and in Los Angeles by the litzine poeticdiversity which will publish a second extract from Unsettled, a West Bank Journal in its Spring, 2014 issue. McDonnell is currently working on her first poetry collection, People this Little World. …