Hawk's Well's iYeats International Poetry Competition 2019 Winners Announced.
The winners of this year's iYeats Poetry Competition have been announced. Launched a decade ago, the internationally-recognised poetry competition was initiated by the Hawk's Well Theatre to mark the 50th Yeats International Summer School, and the 70th anniversary of the death of W. B Yeats, and has been an annual event ever since.
With the number of entries for the 2019 event exceeding 2018's sizable competition, picking the winners was a difficult task for the judges; highly respected Irish poet John F. Deane, and Palestinian-Canadian spoken word artist Rafeef Ziadah.
With entries coming from across the globe competing in two categories; 'General', and 'Emerging' for poets aged 16 - 25, the judges chose Angela T. Carr's 'Child' as their overall winner, with John Tinneny's 'Animals' coming out on top in the 'Emerging' category.
Singling out 'Child' for the top spot, judge John F. Deane called the piece; "a truly moving poem, beautifully structured and followed through".
Carr's work may have been victorious, but the judges singled out 'The Albatross at Langdon School' by Paul Nash as highly commendable, commenting that the poem was; "a really well written sonnet, imaginatively thought out and developed."
Four poems in all in the general category also came in for commendation; Siobhan Flynn's 'The Colour of Words', Lina Al Sharif's 'Ghazal: Kitchen', Nidhi Zakaria Eipe's 'Berlin / First Love' and 'Nine Months' by Margot Harrison.
The 2019 winner Angela T. Carr is a poet, editor and creative writing facilitator. She was also winner of The Poetry Business 2018 Laureate's Prize, chosen by Carol Ann Duffy, and her work has been placed or shortlisted in over 40 national and international literary competitions. Her poetry is published in journals and anthologies in Ireland, the UK and US, including The North, The Lonely Crowd, The London Magazine, Prelude, Mslexia and Banshee. In 2017, she was chosen for the inaugural Words Ireland National Mentoring Programme and is currently working on her second collection, The Auguries. Originally from Glasgow, she lives in Dublin. You can learn more about Angela by visiting her website www.adreamingskin.com.
The winner of the emerging category for young poets under 25 year old is John Tinneny from Belfast. John is currently studying for a degree in English Literature and French in Glasgow.
All the poems selected by the judges and videos of the winning poets reading their work is available to view at https://www.hawkswell.com/iyeats/poetry
The Hawk's Well Theatre would like to take this opportunity to thank their judges and all the poets who entered the competition in this it's 10th Anniversary year.