PEN Heaney Prize
The PEN Heaney Prize is an annual poetry award launched in 2024. It is delivered as a partnership between English PEN, Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann and the estate of the Irish poet Seamus Heaney, after whom it is named. A volume of poetry qualifies for the award if it is written by a single author, is published in the United Kingdom or Ireland, is judged to be "of outstanding literary merit", and "engages with the impact of cultural or political events on human conditions or relationships."[1]
The winner of the PEN Heaney Prize is awarded £5,000. If the winning volume has been translated into English from another language, £5,000 is also awarded to the translator or translators.[2]
Winners and shortlists
| Year | Author(s) | Title | Publisher | Result | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Susannah Dickey | ISDAL | Picador Poetry | Winner | [3] |
| Martina Evans | The Coming Thing | Carcanet Poetry | Shortlisted | [4] | |
| Fran Lock | Hyena! | Poetry Bus Press | |||
| Patrick McGuinness | Blood Feather | Cape Poetry | |||
| Dawn Watson | We Play Here | Granta Poetry | |||
| Yang Lian | A Tower Built Downwards (translated by Brian Holton) | Bloodaxe Books | |||
| 2025 | Don Mee Choi | Mirror Nation | And Other Stories | Shortlisted | [5] |
| Najwan Darwish | No One Will Know You Tomorrow (translated by Kareem James Abu-Zeid) | Yale University Press | |||
| Lena Khalaf Tuffaha | Something About Living | the87press | |||
| Tom Paulin | Namanlagh | Faber & Faber | |||
| Stav Poleg | The Banquet | Carcanet Poetry | |||
| Karen Solie | Wellwater | Picador |
Judges
- 2024: Nick Laird, Paula Meehan and Shazea Quraishi[2]
- 2025: Sasha Dugdale, Seán Hewitt and Zaffar Kunial[5]
References
- ^ "PEN Heaney Prize". English PEN. Retrieved 2025-10-29.
- ^ a b Spanoudi, Melina (2024-04-12). "New PEN Heaney Prize launched for poetry with focus on social engagement". The Bookseller.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link) - ^ "Susannah Dickey wins the inaugural PEN Heaney Prize". English PEN. 2024-12-02. Retrieved 2025-10-29.
- ^ "PEN Heaney Prize 2024 shortlist". English PEN. 2024-11-05. Retrieved 2025-10-29.
- ^ a b Spanoudi, Melina (2025-10-23). "Six titles shortlisted for PEN Heaney Prize 2025". The Bookseller. Retrieved 2025-10-29.