On the eve of what would have been Seamus’s 85th birthday, we are delighted to share news of a new venture we have been working on with our friends at English PEN and Irish PEN - the PEN Heaney Prize. The annual prize will recognise a single volume of poetry, published in the UK or Ireland, of outstanding literary merit that engages with the impact of individual cultural or political events on human conditions or relationships. The prize honours Seamus’s own long support for and association with PEN over the years, and its crucial work on behalf of writers around the world.
Through his essays, lectures and addresses, Seamus Heaney became one of the most eloquent advocates for poetry and the role of the poet in public life. He understood the power of poetry to speak and respond to certain moments and experiences in the wider world, while always mindful that poetry must never lose “its fundamentally self-delighting inventiveness”.
With this prize, the Estate, English PEN and Irish PEN/ PEN na hÉireann wish to celebrate work that resonates with Heaney’s own values and interests, “true to the impact of external reality and … sensitive to the inner laws of the poet’s being”, to quote from his Nobel Lecture. Through the prize, the judging panel will seek to reward work of literary excellence that looks outward to society, recognising and highlighting that we are all citizens living in community, aspiring to Seamus Heaney’s call to writers to be “both socially responsible and creatively free”.
The inaugural prize will be judged by poets Nick Laird, Paula Meehan and Shazea Quraishi. The three judges will be joined by Catherine Heaney, representing the Estate of Seamus Heaney, who will act as non-voting Chair of the judging panel.
Submissions are now open for publishers from the UK and Ireland. They will close at 23:59 on Monday 3 June 2024. Poetry collections published between 1 January and 31 December 2023 and marketed to adult readers are eligible. More information and the full criteria can be found on the English PEN website: https://www.englishpen.org/prizes/pen-heaney-prize/
The inaugural PEN Heaney Prize is supported by Hawthornden Foundation.