The Trustees of the Ireland Chair of Poetry are delighted to announce Scott McKendry as the recipient of the 2024 Ireland Chair of Poetry Bursary. Scott was nominated by the Ireland Professor of Poetry, Paul Muldoon, and the Trustees of the Ireland Chair of Poetry Trust confirmed the nomination.
Commenting on their selection, the Trustees said:
“Scott McKendry’s debut collection Gub, is as strong as any that’s been published in recent memory. Two poems on facing pages — “Male Line: A Fallacy” and “Swazzle” — attest both to his inventiveness and his ability to inventory the details of everyday life in Belfast with a winning combination of rib-tickling drollery and tenderness.”
The Ireland Chair of Poetry Bursary is awarded annually to a poet of promise. It enables the recipient to reside for four weeks at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Annaghmakerrig, Co. Monaghan.
Scott McKendry is from North Belfast. His poems have appeared in The Poetry Review, The Stinging Fly, Virginia Quarterly Review and elsewhere. The recipient of a Patrick Kavanagh Award, McKendry’s Curfuffle (Lifeboat) was Poetry Book Society Autumn Pamphlet Choice 2019. His debut collection, GUB (Corsair), was published in February this year.