Saturday, July 24, 2010

Tom Mathews shortlisted for inaugural Seamus Heaney Centre Poetry Prize

Dedalus poet Tom Mathews is the only Irish poet (and the only book from an Irish publisher) on the shortlist for the inaugural Seamus Heaney Centre Poetry Prize. The Owl and the Pussycat, his debut collection, was published in November 2009 and praised in The Irish Times as "a quirky insight into human nature".

Mathews is, of course, best known as one of Ireland's most popular cartoonists and as such has published a number of collections of his cartoons which are also regularly exhibited throughout Ireland.

The full shortlist (in alphabetical order) is as follows:
Anne Berkeley, The Men from Praga (Salt)
Sian Hughes, The Missing (Salt)
Lorraine Mariner, Furniture (Picador)
Tom Mathews, The Owl and the Pussycat (Dedalus)
Andrew Philip, The Ambulance Box (Salt)

The winner of the inaugural Poetry Prize will be announced at the British and Irish Contemporary Poetry Conference to be hosted by the Seamus Heaney Centre in September 2010.

Tom Mathews reads a number of the poems at the launch of the book on YouTube.

For further information, or to purchase the book, please visit Tom Mathews' page on the Dedalus Press website.