A FORTHCOMING book by Seamus Heaney is among the nominations in the best collection category of one of Britain’s most prestigious and valuable poetry awards.
The shortlists for the annual Forward Prizes for Poetry, announced yesterday, also include Armagh poet Sinead Morrissey's Through the Square Window, the winner of The Irish Times/Poetry Now award earlier this year.
Heaney's new collection, Human Chain, is due for publication in early September and is the Nobel Laureate's 12th volume of poems and the successor to his widely acclaimed District and Circle, published in 2006.
The best collection prize is worth €10,000 and the other nominees joining Heaney and Morrissey are Fiona Sampson, a regular reviewer of poetry for The Irish Timesbooks pages, for Rough Music; Lachlan Mackinnon, for Small Hours; Robin Robertson, a previous winner of this award, for The Wrecking Light; and Jo Shapcott, for Of Mutability.
The only previous Irish winner of this award was Belfast poet Ciaran Carson, who received it for Breaking News in 2003.
This year’s judges are poet and columnist Hugo Williams, performance poet Dreadlockalien, journalist and broadcaster Alex Clark, actor and director Fiona Shaw, and poet, critic and chair of the panel, Ruth Padel. The winners will be announced at a ceremony in London on October 6th, the eve of National Poetry Day in Ireland and the United Kingdom.