Southword Creative Non-Fiction Award Results

Judy Crozier is an Australian writer living in France. Her childhood was spent in war-torn spots in SE Asia, including Vietnam. Besides motherhood, her adult life back in Melbourne included journalism, editing, home renovation, political campaigning. A Master of Creative Writing was followed by proofreading as well as teaching creative writing to adults. She has written many short stories, several published and awarded, and an historical novel (What Empty Things Are These, published by Regal House Publishing). Another novel ms, based in 60s Vietnam, is a finalist in the Page Turner Awards, winner to be announced in November 2025.

Eamon Doggett is from Bettystown, Meath. His stories have been published in The London Magazine, The Irish Times and Channel, among others. He has won the Hennessy First Fiction Award, the From the Well Short Story competition and the Sylvia O’Brien Prize. He lives in Galway.

Kieran Hayes lives in Galway and holds a degree in English Literature and Philosophy from University College Cork, and a postgraduate qualification in journalism from the University of Galway. He writes personal essays, narrative prose and autofiction that deal with themes such as mental health, the arts, contemporary society, spirituality and nature. For essayistic inspiration he looks to Virginia Woolf, George Orwell, Adam Phillips, W.G. Sebald, Leslie Jamison and Geoff Dyer. He has published journalism and essays both in print and online. In 2024 Kieran set up The Yessayists, a peer critique group for writers of creative non-fiction.

Emily Holt is the author of the poetry collection Though the Walls Are Lit, and most recently her prose and translations have appeared in Ragaire, AGNI, Hinterland, and Hold Open the Door: A Commemorative Anthology from the Ireland Chair of Poetry. She earned an MLitt from Trinity College Dublin and an MFA from the Rainier Writing Workshop. She is the owner of Ultralight Editorial.

Luisa A. Igloria is the author of Caulbearer (Immigrant Writing Series Prize, Black Lawrence Press; 2024) and 14 other books. She is lead editor (with Aileen Cassinetto and David Hassler) of The Nature of Our Times: Poems on America’s Lands, Waters, Wildlife, and Other Natural Wonders (Paloma Press, September 2025). Luisa teaches in the MFA Creative Writing Program at Old Dominion University. During her term as 20^th Poet Laureate of Virginia (2020-22), Emerita, the Academy of American Poets awarded her one of 23 Poet Laureate Fellowships in 2021 to support a program of public poetry projects. www.luisaigloria.com. https://linktr.ee/thepoetslizard.

Karen J McDonnell’s writing is widely published and anthologised, including The Poetry Bus, Peaceweavers Anthology (Culture Matters, UK), Washing Windows V, Holy Cows Anthology (Arlen House), Vital Signs (Poetry Ireland), Romance Options (Dedalus Press), New Isles Press 2, Skylight 47, Crannóg, The Stony Thursday, The Cormorant, The Galway Review, The North, and New Irish Writing.  Her poem Driftwood was shortlisted for Irish Poem of the Year at the Irish Book Awards. Non-fiction and poetry have been Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize nominated. Her collections This Little World and TIDAL are published by Doire Press. She lives in the west of Ireland. Photo credit: Aidan Sweeney Photography. karenjmcdonnell.com.

Ailish McFadden is a retired therapist who worked for decades in children and adolescent mental health services and child protection. Her first non-fiction work, ‘Eve in Ireland, Controlling and Silencing Irish Women – 1922-1972’, was published by The Liffey Press in 2024. She completed a Masters in Creative Writing in 2025. Ailish is also a visual artist.  She is married to Joe and is a mother to young adults and a grandmother.

Nuala O’Connor lives in Galway. Her sixth novel Seaborne, about Irish-born pirate Anne Bonny, was nominated for the Dublin Literary Award and shortlisted for Novel of the Year at the 2024 An Post Irish Book Awards. She won Irish Short Story of the Year at the 2022 Irish Book Awards. Her fifth poetry collection, Menagerie, was published by Arlen House in spring 2025. She is currently writing a memoir about late-diagnosed autism. Photo credit: Úna O’Connor. www.nualaoconnor.com.

Eve Marie Power is a writer based in Dublin, Ireland. Her work spans creative nonfiction, poetry, and fiction, often exploring memory, place, and legacy. She was runner-up for the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award, recipient of a Words Ireland mentorship and an Arts Council Award for a Tyrone Guthrie Residency. She holds a degree in Early Irish Studies and a diploma in Creative Writing. She recently received the John Hewitt International Summer School Bursary and she is currently developing her next novel.

Paul Sutherland (b.1947) is an Anglo-Canadian poet/writer with 22 collections. In 1996 he founded the literary arts journal Dream Catcher; 2004 turned freelance and became a Sufi Muslim. His New and Selected Poems (Valley Press 2017) was listed by The Morning Star as one of the ten best books that year. His recent publication Only Words highlights the poet’s ‘sensitivity to the infinite that lies beyond poetry, and beyond words.’ His latest title, Child Roots, ‘explores’, as one review says, ‘the world of children with a rare sensibility.’ He runs workshops, performs his poetry and takes commissions. www.authorpaulsutherland.com.