Another Award for Heaney

Poet Seamus Heaney has won the David Cohen Prize for Literature for 2009. The prize, worth £40,000, was presented by the chair of judges and Poet Laureate Andrew Motion at a gala ceremony hosted by the British Library. Presenting the prize, Andrew Motion said “For the last forty-odd years, Heaney’s poems have crystallised the story of our times, in language which has bravely and memorably continued to extend its imaginative reach. At the same time, his critical writing, his translations and his lecturing have invigorated the whole wider world of poetry. Setting his name alongside previous winners does honour to the Cohen Prize, even as it honours him.” The winner of the David Cohen Prize for Literature chooses the recipient of the Clarissa Luard Award, which is worth £12,500. This award is funded by Arts Council England and is given to a literature organisation that supports young writers or an individual writer under the age of thirty-five. Seamus Heaney chose to present this year’s Clarissa Luard Award to Poetry Aloud, an annual poetry speaking competition open to all post primary students in Ireland. The competition is run by the National Library in association with Poetry Ireland.