McConnell wins €10k Pollard International Poetry Prize

Gail McConnell has won the 2022 John Pollard Foundation International Poetry Prize for her debut book The Sun is Open (Penned in the Margins).

The announcement was made at an award ceremony in Trinity College Dublin on 12th April.

The Sun Is Open focuses on the life and death of the poet’s father, who was murdered by the IRA outside their Belfast home in 1984. Moving between child and adult perspectives, the collection of poetry pieces together his history and life.

Now in its fourth year, the prize is awarded annually for an outstanding debut collection of poetry in the English language. Valued at €10,000 (£8,340) the prize is sponsored by the John Pollard Foundation and administered by the Trinity Oscar Wilde Centre in the School of English at Trinity College.

“I am deeply honoured to be the fourth recipient of the John Pollard Foundation International Poetry Prize for The Sun is Open," McConnell said. "This book swirls around an autobiographical event: my father’s murder by the IRA outside our Belfast home in 1984. Using newspaper reports, Hansard, fragments of the Psalms, my father’s student diaries and other public and private materials archived in a ‘dad box’, it moves between child and adult voices to try to piece together a history and a life."

She added: “I was 3-and-a-half when my father was murdered. My wife, Beth, and I now have a 3-and-a-half year old child. In part, this prize will be an investment in his future, and I hope it will help create some space and time for more poems. I am grateful to my editor at Penned in the Margins, Tom Chivers, for understanding this book intimately. I also wish to thank the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the School of Arts, English and languages at Queen’s University Belfast, whose support made its completion possible. Finally, I wish to honour Ciaran Carson who was this book’s first reader and whose work and friendship have been one of the greatest gifts of my life.”

Chair of the judging panel and director of the Trinity Oscar Wilde Centre, Professor Eoin McNamee, said:  “Out of a very strong shortlist the panel recognised the authority and lyric command of The Sun Is Open. Working on the very edge of what can be said, The Sun Is Open is both a work of adamantine witness and a patient unearthing of what is rare and beautiful. This is a work of gravity and importance and we are delighted to have the opportunity to acknowledge it.”