Inaugural PEN Heaney Prize shortlist announced

The shortlist for the inaugural PEN Heaney Prize has been revealed.

Facilitated by the English PEN, together with Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann and the Estate of Seamus Heaney, which recognises a single volume of poetry by one author, published in the UK or Ireland, of outstanding literary merit that engages with the impact of cultural or political events on human conditions or relationships.

The winner of this year’s PEN Heaney Prize will be announced on 2nd December at a ceremony held at the Great Hall, Queen’s University Belfast, in partnership with the Seamus Heaney Centre.

The PEN Heaney Prize 2024 shortlist is:

ISDAL by Susannah Dickey (Picador Poetry)
The Coming Thing by Martina Evans (Carcanet Poetry)
Hyena! by Fran Lock (Poetry Bus Press)
Blood Feather by Patrick McGuinness (Cape Poetry)
We Play Here by Dawn Watson (Granta Poetry)
A Tower Built Downwards by Yang Lian, translated by Brian Holton (Bloodaxe Books)

The inaugural PEN Heaney Prize has been judged by poets Nick Laird, Paula Meehan and Shazea Quraishi, with Catherine Heaney joining them as non-voting Chair representing the Estate of Seamus Heaney.