The €1,000 prize, which is awarded to a poet who has not yet published a full-length collection, was presented to the winner, Scott McKendry, at the Kavanagh Weekend in Inniskeen, Co Monaghan, on Friday 27 September.

The judge of the award, poet and novelist Brian Lynch, said, “McKendry’s work centres on Hopewell Place, in the Old Lodge district of Belfast known as the Hammer […] What is most remarkable about Scott, however, is his ear for the music of common speech and high poetry. I foresee a great future for him.

The level of this year’s competition was so high that I felt obliged to choose four runners-up, each of whom, plus a number of other ‘highly commended’ entries, would have been a worthy winner.”

The runners-up are Jerm Curtin, Colette Colfer, Victoria Kennefick, and Audrey Molloy. The highly commended poets are Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe, Emma Must, A.M. Cousins, Angela Finn, Mark Ward, Sean Kelly, Gail McConnell, Emily S. Cooper, Zosia Kuczynska, and Teresa Godfrey.