The  S T R O K E S T O W N
i n t e r n a t i o n a l
P O E T R Y  P R I Z E S

Féile Idirnáisiúnta Filíochta Bhéal Áth na mBuillí  

  
     
     
     
     
     
     
   
  Competition Judges for 2010      
             
  Category 1: The Strokestown International Poetry Prize      
             
    Sebastian Barker lives in London.  He has been on the executive committee of P.E.N. and was the Chairman of the Poetry Society from 1988 to 1992. In 1997 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In 2002 he took over editorship of the London Magazine, from which he resigned in 2007 after the Arts Council England had cut the magazine's funding. His earlier collections, which include On the Rocks (Brian & O'Keeffe 1977), and A Nuclear Ephiphany (Friday Night Fish Publications, 1984) were brought together in a volume of selected poems, Guarding the Border, published by Enitharmon Press in 1992. More recent collections include The Dream of Intelligence (Littlewood Arc, 1992, a long poem based on Nietzsche’s life and works), The Hand in the Well (Enitharmon, 1996), Damnatio Memoriae (Enitharmon, 2004), and The Erotics of God (Smokestack Books, 2005).    
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
             
    vvvv Julie O'Callaghan was born in Chicago and has lived in Ireland since 1974. Her collections of poetry include Edible Anecdotes (Mountrath, Dolmen, 1983), which was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation; What’s What (Bloodaxe Books, 1991), a Poetry Book Society Choice; No Can Do (Bloodaxe Books, 2000), a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, for which she was awarded the Michael Hartnett Poetry Prize; and a chapbook, Problems (Boston, Pressed Wafer, 2005). Her new and selected poems Tell Me This Is Normal (Bloodaxe Books, 2008)  is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. She was awarded Irish Arts Council Bursaries in 1985, 1990, and 1998 and is a member of Aosdána.    
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
             
    Enda Wyley lives in Dublin. She has published four collections of poetry with the Dedalus Press: Eating Baby Jesus (1994), Socrates in the Garden (1998) and Poems For Breakfast (2004) and To Wake to This (2009). She has received an M.A. in Creative Writing from Lancaster University, and was the inaugural recipient of The Vincent Buckley Poetry Prize. She has been widely anthologised, including in the Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing, Irish Women's Writing and Tradition, Vols. 4 & 5. In 1997, 2001, 2005 and 2008 she was awarded bursaries in Literature from the Arts Council of Ireland / An Chomhairle Ealaíon.    
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
             
             
  Category 2: Duais Cholmcille / The Colmcille Prize    
    for poetry written in Irish or Scots Gaelic      
           
    Aonghas Macneacail was born in 1942 on the Isle of Skye, and attended Glasgow University from 1968-1971. He has published several collections of poems, mostly in Gaelic with parallel English translations, including An Seachnadh/The Avoiding (1986) and Oideachadh Ceart/A Proper Schooling (1996), the latter winning the 1997 Stakis Prize for Scottish Writer of the Year. A collection of poems in English, Rock and Water, appeared in 1990. His latest book is a collection of Gaelic poems, Laoidh an Donais Oig/Hymn to a Young Demon (2007).
Over a period of 30 years, he has held creative writing fellowships with various community and educational bodies, including the Gaelic College in Skye, Brownsbank (Hugh MacDiarmid's last home), Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities, and, most recently, in eight Dumfries and Galloway schools. The latter has resulted in a substantial anthology of pupils' writing. His work has been widely translated and has appeared in many magazines and anthologies both in the UK and abroad. He has written plays and scripts for television and radio. In 1993 he wrote a four-part documentary series on Gaelic culture for Scottish Television and Driven West, a five-part drama for BBC Radio Scotland, and has recently worked, as a co-writer, on the feature film Seachd - The Inaccessible Pinnacle. He has also collaborated with various musicians, writing libretti and songs, and has toured all over the world to give recitals and lectures.		    
       
       
       
       
       
       
         
         
             
    Paddy Bushe  was born in Dublin in 1948. A poet who writes in both English and Irish, he has published many poetry collections, among them Poems With Amergin (Beaver Row Press, 1989), Teanga (Coiscéim, 1990), Counsellor (Sceilg Press, 1991), Digging Towards The Light (Dedalus Press, 1994), In Ainneoin na gCloch (Coiscéim, 2001), Hopkins on Skellig Michael (Dedalus Press, 2001) and The Nitpicking of Cranes (Dedalus, 2004). In February 2007 the Dedalus Press publishes To Ring in Silence: New and Selected Poems, drawing on all of these earlier collections and including the author's own translations of his own and a number of classic Irish lyrics. The recipient of the Oireachtas prize for poetry in 2006, Paddy Bushe was also the recipient of the 2006 Michael Hartnett Poetry Award. He lives in Co. Kerry.    
       
       
       
       
       
       
           
             
             
  Category 3: The Percy French Prize for humorous verse    
             
    Declan O'Brien        
             
    Like Percy French, Declan O'Brien is a civil servant, lives in Dublin and is a renowned versifier and wit. In 2005 he won the Strokestown Satire Prize with his poem The Corinthians Write Back and he has also been a prizewinner at the Bard of Armagh. He is a frequent contributer to RTÉ Radio 1's Liveline on its Funny Friday session, and is currently reckoned to be one of the funniest exponents and performers of comic poetry in the country. His play Sypan Summer was performed in 2006. He has produced a CD, Decalogues, of some of his poems and performances.    
       
       
             
             
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