Entries open for Strokestown International Poetry Competition 2025
Roscommon poet Jane Clarke. She will judge this year's Strokestown International Poetry Competition.
Entries are now open for the Strokestown International Poetry Competition 2025.
Established in 1999, former winners include Vona Groarke, Paddy Bushe, Maureen Boyle and Jane Robinson with last year’s winner, Thomas Brezing among a list and shortlist of many distinguished poets. This year’s competition will be judged by the award-winning poet, County Roscommon native Jane Clarke.
With a prize fund of €2000 and a shortlist of five poets, shortlisted poets will be invited to read their poem at this year’s Strokestown International Poetry Festival 2025, May 2nd-4th. The winner will be announced on Sunday, May 4th and presented with a cheque for €1,000.
To apply visit the website, https://strokestownpoetryfest.ie and go to ‘Poetry Competition’. The site is currently accepting entries and the closing date is January 31st.
Jane Clarke grew up on a farm in Fuerty and is the author of three poetry collections, The River (2015), When the Tree Falls (2019) and A Change in the Air (2023) published by Bloodaxe Books. She edited the illustrated anthology Windfall: Irish Nature Poems to Inspire and Connect (Hachette Books Ireland, 2023). Her most recent collection, A Change in the Air, was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection 2023 and the T.S. Eliot Prize 2023. She received an Arts Council of Ireland Literature Bursary Award in 2024 for the completion of her fourth collection. Jane judged the Poetry Business International Book Competition 2023 and was one of the judges for the Forward Prize for Poetry 2023.
