Founded in 2021 to honour Eavan Boland’s legacy, the award supports poets through mentorship and cross-border residencies. Eavan Boland championed diversity and new voices, stating that “the margin re-defines the centre.” This award reflects her vision for a vibrant, inclusive poetry community.
The Eavan Boland Award 2025 invited early-career poets based in the UK and mid-career poets based in Ireland to apply for the bursary in addition to a residency at the Trinity College Dublin and University of Manchester as well as further development opportunities in 2026, all of which comprise the award.
Supported by Poetry Ireland, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Trinity College Dublin (TCD), the University of Manchester, and the British Council Ireland, this biennial award celebrates creativity, connection, and cross-border exchange in poetry.
Ali Choudhary is a writer, poet and multi-disciplinary artist exploring the poetics of violence and intimacy. He is an Emerging Creative Associate at New Writing North for 2025 and was shortlisted for the Tempest Prize. His poetry appears in or is forthcoming from Diode Poetry Journal, Protean Magazine, Sontag Mag, and Frontier Poetry, among others, and his limited-edition chapbook, NIGHT OF THE FIRE, was published by Ethel Zine & Micro Press in May 2025.Ali will be based at TCD School of English for two weeks in November 2025. During that time, he will engage with the School of English, read his work and explore other creative programmes at the University He will also enjoy additional mentoring and opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration in 2026.
Alvy Carragher is based in Dublin. She grew up in Galway and Tipperary and has since lived in Louisiana, Dublin, South Korea, and Canada. She has published three books of poetry: What Remains the Same (The Gallery Press) which was shortlisted for the Farmgate National Poetry Award in 2025, The Men I Keep Under My bed (Salmon Poetry), and Falling In Love With Broken Things (Salmon Poetry). Her poetry has been archived by the National Poetry Archive, and she has received the support of the Arts Council's Literature Bursary Award (2022 & 2024). Alvy will spend two weeks in October as a resident at the University of Manchester Centre for New Writing. She will take part in seminars and workshops in the Centre for New Writing and will have access to the John Rylands Library where Eavan Boland’s Archive is located. She will also engage with Carcanet Press while in Manchester.
Selectors of this year’s Eavan Boland awardees were Professor John McAuliffe (Manchester) and Dr Rachael Hegarty (Dublin).
Quotes
Liz Kelly, Director of Poetry Ireland remarks: “Eavan Boland felt very strongly that space for new voices must be made, and diversity in all its forms must be cherished, if we wished to safeguard the future of poetry. In her editorial for Poetry Ireland Review 125, she wrote, “the margin re-defines the centre, and not the other way around. But that margin has to be visible, has to be vocal, has to be sustained by new critiques as well as new poems.” This year’s award celebrates new voices in a way that allows for exploration and regeneration, and the two-year award will increase visibility and creative potential of both awardees.”
The Estate of Eavan Boland says: “We are delighted with the decision made in regard to these two worthy awardees. Both poets encompass the spirit of our mother’s courageous literary journey, and we greatly look forward to seeing how this award further enhances their own paths as visionary writers. The Eavan Boland award has evolved this year with the decision to choose both an early career and a mid-career poet, two unique voices at different stages of their own poetic journeys; this award hopefully providing them the space, mentorship and inspiration to further challenge the status quo of the poetic landscape. We are exceptionally grateful to Poetry Ireland for their ongoing vision in growing and bettering this award year on year, the expertise and thoughtful selection of the awardees by Rachel Hegarty and John McAuliffe and the generous collaboration of Trinity College, University of Manchester , Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the British Council Ireland”
John McAuliffe, Professor of Poetry at the University of Manchester’s Centre for New Writing and Associate Publisher at Carcanet Press, shares: “The Centre for New Writing at The University of Manchester has a long tradition of supporting poets, offering an inspiring and responsive environment, and we are delighted to be associated now with this award, which has of course a particularly close fit with Manchester. We are lucky to be able to draw on the rich resources of the John Rylands Research Institute, whose holdings include the work and correspondence of so many great Irish writers, including Eavan Boland, whose work was published here by our colleague Michael Schmidt at Carcanet and at PN Review. Eavan Boland thrived as a writer at work in a university context, while her commitment to the work of editing and publishing is clear from her correspondence with Michael. We are delighted too that this award, in Eavan's honour, will renew Manchester's contact with Dublin and Trinity College's living poetic culture.”
Dr Rachael Hegarty, poet, educator and Award selector, says: “Eavan Boland once said 'many poets begin in fear and hope: fear that the poetic past will turn out to be a monologue rather than a conversation. And hope that their voice can be heard as that past turns into the future.’ The winners of the Eavan Boland Award will be granted time, mentorship and workshop space to converse with the poetic past and, hopefully, add their honed voices to the poetic future.”
Jarlath Killeen, Professor in Victorian Literature and a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin, relfects: "Eavan Boland was one of the greatest of modern Irish poets, an incisive commentator on Irish literature and culture, and an inspirational mentor to creative writing students for decades. She was also a graduate and even (briefly) member of staff of Trinity College Dublin. Indeed, her pamphlet 23 Poems appeared when she was in her first year as a student here, and this effectively formed the start of what was to be an extraordinary career. 2025 has already seen one of the main libraries in Trinity renamed in honour of Eavan Boland, and we are very proud of our association with a figure of such significance in the world of poetry and the creative arts. It is, therefore, only fitting that the Eavan Boland Award should be supported by Trinity's School of English."
Dr. Kaye Mitchell, Director, Centre for New Writing, University of Manchester says "The mission of the Centre for New Writing is to discover and develop new creative voices in poetry, fiction, screenwriting and playwriting, so I am delighted to have this connection with the prestigious Eavan Boland Award. It will be a pleasure to welcome Alvy Carragher to the Centre as a writer-in-residence in Autumn 2025, to share the rich poetic resources of the Rylands and Carcanet Press, and to initiate, I'm sure, many fruitful creative exchanges."
History of the Eavan Boland Award
After the untimely death of Eavan Boland in 2020, Poetry Ireland, in partnership with Stanford University and TCD, presented an annual award / prize in her memory in 2022 and 2023. In 2022 Lauren Greene (USA) and Emma Tobin (Ireland) were selected by Paula Meehan and Jane Hirschfield. The 2023 awardees were Otto Goodwin, the student of English at UCC, and Hua Xi from California, they were selected by Professor of English (Emerita) at Trinity College Dublin and Saoi of Aosdána, Professor Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, and Stanford University’s Mohr Visiting Poet for spring 2023, Diane Seuss.
Originally conceived as a prize for emerging poets, an awardee - one from Ireland and one from the United States – travelled to Stanford and Trinity College Dublin on a funded residency programme.
The focus of the award was and will continue to support, mentor, platform and advocate for poets. An important element of the awards is an exchange of ideas, expertise and support. Now a biennial award, the Eavan Boland Award honours the legacy of one of Ireland’s most influential poets by fostering emerging and mid-career talent through cross-residency opportunities.