The winner of the 2023 Gregory O’Donoghue International Poetry Competition, Katie Griffiths, will read her winning poem Before I stillbirthed the birch along with a selection of her other work on 18th May 2024 at the Cork International Poetry Festival.
Below, we have highlighted the first, second and third prize winners as well as (in alphabetical order) finalists whose poems will appear in the next issue of Southword and highly commended entries. The judge Mary O’Donnell selected these poems from over 1500 entries.
First Prize
Before I stillbirthed the birch by Katie Griffiths
surrey, England
Katie Griffiths grew up in Ottawa, Canada, in a family originally from Ulster. Her debut collection, The Attitudes, was published by Nine Arches Press in 2021 and the prize-winning pamphlet, My Shrink is Pregnant, by Live Canon in 2019. She came second in 2018’s National Poetry Competition and was in the first of the Primers series, also from Nine Arches Press. A member of the London-based Red Door Poets, she has read her poetry at festivals in England, Ireland and Spain.
Second Prize
At the Feet of Michelangelo’s David by Suzanne Cleary
NY, USA
Suzanne Cleary’s most recent poetry books are Crude Angel (2018) and Beauty Mark (2013), both published by BkMk Press. Her awards include a Pushcart Prize, the John Ciardi Prize, the Cecil Hemley Memorial Award of the Poetry Society of America, and writing residencies at Yaddo and MacDowell. Her poems appear in anthologies including Best American Poetry and The Forward Book of Poetry 2022,and in journals including Poetry London, The Atlantic, and Southern Review. In 2017, she won the Troubadour International Poetry Prize (2nd Place) and the Gregory O’Donoghue Prize of the Munster Literature Centre (3rd Place). She is Core Faculty for the Converse University MFA in Creative Writing Program and also teaches for the Kent & Sussex Poetry Festival, based in Tunbridge Wells, England. She lives just north of New York City. Her website is www.suzanneclearypoet.com
Third Prize
Sunrise on the Dahme by Zoë Green
Montrose, Scotland
Zoë Green is a Scottish poet who lives in Berlin. Her debut pamphlet, Shadow Child, comes out with Hedgehog Press this year; her first collection, Map, Compass, Key will be published by Valley Press in 2025. Her work has featured in The London Magazine, The Alchemy Spoon, Under the Radar, Poetry Wales, Poetry Salzburg Review, One Hand Clapping, and The Interpreter’s House. She mostly writes whilst on the move: on planes, trains, trams and buses, or just walking through the woods. X: @thetrampoet