Caroline Walsh in the Irish Times reports that Derek Mahon has won the Cohen Prize for a lifetime’s work in poetry. I’m delighted for him, because as one who has struggled with the verse form there are lines in Mahon which I simply don’t know how they were made. Many congratulations on such recognition.
The prize is worth £40,000, and very imaginatively allows Mahon to choose the recipient of the Clarissa Luard Award, which is worth £12,500 for a literary body that supports young writers or an individual writer under 35.
So congratulations also to The Gallery Press, which Mahon chose to give the Award.
The David Cohen Prize is biennial, administered by Arts Council England and funded by the John S. Cohen Foundation. The winner is decided by a panel of writers, critics and academics which this year included Anne Enright, Jackie Kay and Hilary Mantel.
The David Cohen Prize
The Gallery Press
Derek Mahon at Irish Writers Online
Irish Bloggers