David Nash was announced as the winner for No Man’s Land, published by Dedalus Press, during the Award Night readings in the Crescent Arts Centre, Belfast on Thursday 27 June 2024.  

David Nash was born in Co. Cork and lives between Ireland and Chile. His work is widely published in journals, and his texts have appeared in numerous art exhibitions and books, including for Wolfgang Tillmans at IMMA. A Spanish-language children’s book, Bajo Mis Pies, came out in 2020, as did two translations of books on the cultural history of Chile. 

Speaking about the award David Nash said: “Seamus Heaney was the first poet of my life, in many ways, so to win a prize bearing his name is momentous to me both on a poetic and a personal level. I am extremely grateful to the Legacy Project, Queen’s and the Arts Council, and of course to the judges, for selecting my book and for seeing in it what I had hoped would be seen. It really means a great deal to me.” 

This year’s judges were Professor Nick Laird, poet and Seamus Heaney Professor of Poetry at Queen’s; Professor of English and Creative Writing at Trinity University, Texas, poet and Fulbright Scholar, Jenny Browne; and Dr Stephen Sexton, poet and lecturer in Poetry at the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s. 

Nick Laird, chair of the judge’s panel commented: “David Nash’s No Man’s Land is a book of return and renewal. Over and over the poems scrutinize modern Ireland with an insider’s easy familiarity and an outsider’s fresh perspective. Nash has technique in spades, a wry tone, an interest in formal ingenuity, and these poems set themselves ambitious aims which they invariably achieve.” 

The audience heard from all shortlisted collections at the Award Night, as part of the Seamus Heaney Poetry Summer School. The event took place at the Crescent Arts Centre in Belfast, supported by No Alibis Bookstore. 

The 2024 Shortlist included: 

• Cowboy, by Kandace Siobhan Walker (Cheerio Poetry) 
• Crisis Actor, by Declan Ryan (Faber) 
• Before We Go Any Further, by Tristram Fane Saunders (Carcanet) 
• Swimming Between Islands, by Charlotte Eichler (Carcanet) 

The Seamus Heaney Centre Poetry Prize is awarded annually to a writer whose first full collection has been published in the preceding year, by a UK or Ireland-based publisher. The winning writer receives £5,000 and is invited to participate in the Seamus Heaney Centre’s busy calendar of literary events. 

The award comes just days after the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s unveiled a new landmark building located at the listed historic 38 - 40 University Road and 3 Mount Charles, just a short walk from the main Lanyon building at the heart of the Queen’s campus.

The centre now features a new exhibition space displaying the University’s Seamus Heaney archive, open to the public Tuesday through Sunday, from 10.00am - 4.00pm.   

For more information, please visit: https://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/seamus-heaney-centre/  

Media

Media enquiries to Zara McBrearty at Queen’s Communications Office on email: z.mcbrearty@qub.ac.uk or mob: 07795676858.