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The English and Irish PENs, together with the estate of Seamus Heaney, have launched a new £5,000 annual prize called the PEN Heaney Prize. The award will recognise a single volume of poetry by one author, published in the UK or Ireland, of outstanding literary merit, which engages with "the impact of cultural or political events on human conditions or relationships".
In honour of Seamus Heaney, the prize also aims to celebrate work that resonates with the poet’s values and interests, and that remains “true to the impact of external reality and … sensitive to the inner laws of the poet’s being”.
Submissions are now open for publishers from the UK and Ireland on the English PEN website. They will close on Monday 3rd June 2024, and the full criteria can be found here. A shortlist will be announced in October 2024, with the winning volume announced in November. The winner will receive £5,000, and if the winning book is translated from another language, the same amount will also be awarded to the translator or translators.
Sitting alongside English PEN’s Pinter Prize for outstanding writers of literary merit, and the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize for non-fiction, the award is open to original and translated English language collections. The inaugural prize will be judged by poets Nick Laird, Paula Meehan and Shazea Quraishi, joined by Catherine Heaney from the estate of Seamus Heaney, who will act as non-voting chair of the panel.
"My father had a long association with PEN and supported the essential work it does on behalf of writers around the world," Catherine Heaney said. "Therefore, it feels fitting that he should be honoured and remembered through this exciting joint venture, which will reward a volume of poetry that reflects PEN’s and Seamus’ shared values."
Ruth Borthwick, chair of English PEN, added: "The life and work of Seamus Heaney is a huge inspiration to us all, and we are deeply honoured to be a presenting partner of the PEN Heaney Prize. Our hope for the PEN Heaney Prize is that it becomes an enduring touchstone for both poets and their readers, who seek luminosity in a complex and troubling world."
Catherine Dunne, chair of Irish PEN/PEN na hÉIREANN, added: "This prize will celebrate poetry of outstanding literary merit that also engages with the wider world. Poetry that explores the impact of individual cultural or political events on the human condition, without ever losing ‘its fundamentally self-delighting inventiveness’."
The inaugural PEN Heaney Prize is supported by the Hawthornden Foundation.