The Ireland Chair of Poetry is delighted to announce the winners of the 2021 Student Award. Now in its third year, the Student Award is an initiative encouraging the writing of poetry within the three universities that support the Trust.
The Trust has decided to award the following students:
Saakshi Patel (QUB)
Caitlin Phenix (QUB)
Clifton Redmond (TCD)
Mary Ann Williams (UCD)
Commenting on the submissions received for the 2021 Student Award, the adjudication panel, comprised of two Trustees together with the current Ireland Chair of Poetry, Professor Frank Ormsby, had this to say:
‘The most promising writers rose brightly on their own convection currents and we were in more or less complete agreement from the word go.
Caitlin Phenix moved us with her lyrical pastoral. Cliffton Redmond moved bravely into Heaney/Hughes territory (‘I killed my first sheep today’). Mary Ann Williams was another pleasing lyrical voice (‘we learned sassafras / by three leaf shapes’). But we were blown away by the poetry of Saakshi Patel: ‘I cry for the sound of my grandfather clipping / his half-moon toenails in Delhi heat.’
All prize winners have expressed their delight and thanks to the Trust in their acceptance of the award.