The Poetry Society (National Poetry Competition 2007)

Sinéad Morrissey is the winner of the 30th National Poetry Competition.

Judges E.A.Markham, Michael Schmidt and Penelope Shuttle were unnanimous in choosing 'Through the Square Window' as the winning poem for the National Poetry Competition 2007.

"That my poem found its way on an anonymous basis is quite amazing, that it has spoken up for itself amidst the clamour of all those other voices".

Listen to Sinéad (2007 first prize winner) and Michael Hulse (first ever winner in 1978) explain what winning the competition meant to them, as well as Rosemary Norman (2007 second prize winner) and Fleur Adcock (one of the first judges in 1978) comment on the value of the National Poetry Competition, live at the award ceremony on Thursday 27 March at the October Gallery.

Sinead Morrissey

Click on the player above to listen to 'Through the Square Window'

Sinéad Morrissey was born in Northern Ireland in 1972. She has published three collections of poetry with Carcanet Press: There was Fire in Vancouver (1996); Between Here and There (2002); The State of the Prisons (2005). Her prizes include The Patrick Kavanagh Award for Poetry (1990); an Eric Gregory Award (1996); the Rupert and Eithne Strong Award (2002); the Michael Hartnett Poetry Prize (2005) and a Lannan Literary Fellowship (2007). Both Between Here and There and The State of the Prisons were shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize. She is a lecturer in creative writing at the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry, Queen’s University, Belfast.

Rosemary Norman took Second prize with her Poem 'The Hairdresser from Beirut' . Click on the player to listen to Rosemary read her poem.

David Kennedy took Third prize with his poem 'Encore, Mr Fox'