The Shortlist includes:

The English Summer, by Holly Hopkins (Penned In the Margins, 2022)
 
Slide, by Mark Pajak (Jonathan Cape, 2022)

The City, by Stav Poleg (Carcanet, 2022) 
In Her Jaws, by Rosamund Taylor (Banshee Press, 2022) 
Raised Among Vultures, by Molly Twomey (Gallery Press, 2022) 

The Seamus Heaney Centre Poetry Prize is awarded to a writer whose first full collection has been published in the preceding year, by a UK or Ireland-based publisher. The winning writer receives £5,000 and is invited to participate in the Seamus Heaney Centre’s busy calendar of literary events.

This year’s judges are Professor Nick Laird, poet and Seamus Heaney Professor of Poetry at Queen’s University; Dr Leontia Flynn, poet and Reader in Poetry, and Dr Stephen Sexton, poet and lecturer in Poetry at the Seamus Heaney Centre. 

"We had an outstanding group of submissions for the Heaney prize this year, but in the end the shortlist was easy to assemble. These five debuts are all outstanding in different ways and speak to the depth and breadth of contemporary poetry."

- Nick Laird, Seamus Heaney Professor of Poetry at Queen's, and judge of the Poetry Prize

The winning and shortlisted writers will read at an event on Mon 26 June, as part of the Seamus Heaney Poetry Summer School, supported by No Alibis Bookstore. The event will take place at the Crescent Arts Centre in Belfast, with readings from the shortlisted poets. 

Find out more about this year's shortlist here.

Media

Media enquiries to Zara McBrearty at Queen’s Communications Office on +44 (0)28 9097 3259 or email: z.mcbrearty@qub.ac.uk