News

Poet Jo Shapcott was announced as the winner of the £30,000 overall Costa book of the year award for her book 'Of Mutability' last night.

The Costa book of the year award has five categories: first novel, novel, biography, poetry and children's book. The winners in each category were announced earlier this year, and went on to compete to be book of the year. The category winners each won £5,000 and the book of the year award is worth a further £30,000.

Full details of the award are available here.

Derek Walcott was announced as the winner of the TS Eliot Poetry Award winner last night.

 The full shortlist comprised of:

• Seeing Stars - Simon Armitage
• The Mirabelles - Annie Freud
• You - John Haynes
• Human Chain - Seamus Heaney
• What the Water Gave Me - Pascale Petit
• The Wrecking Light - Robin Robertson
• Rough Music - Fiona Sampson
• Phantom Noise - Brian Turner
• White Egrets - Derek Walcott
• New Light for the Old Dark - Sam Willetts

Imeall, the TG4 arts programme, caught up with the Ireland Professor of Poetry, Harry Clifton. In conversation with Michael Cronin, Clifton talks about how his life and work are informed by having grown up in green, official 1950s Ireland with an Irish father and a South American mother.

Watch the show here.

Poetry Aloud, the annual poetry speaking competition open to all post-primary students on the island of Ireland, held its semi-finals and final on Friday last in the National Library of Ireland and the National Museum of Ireland.  

A packed audience of students, teachers and parents listened and cheered (over 1,300 students entered the competition nationwide) - with a great high standard - making it hard work for the adjudicators.

Of the twenty-four finalists, the winners were:

Senior Winner (Overall Winner):
Aoife Franklyn - St Andrew's College, Dublin

Intermediate Section:
Kiah Townsend - Presentation Secondary School, Tralee

Junior Section:
Shane McMahon - St Macartan's College, Monaghan

We would like to thank the National Museum of Ireland for the use of their Ceramics Room as a venue for the semi-finals.