2007 Judges
Irish: Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill >>Gaeilge
Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill is one of Ireland’s most celebrated and widely recognised poets. She writes in the Irish language, and has published several collections of poetry, such as Pharaoh's Daughter (1990), The Astrakhan Cloak (1992), and The Water Horse (1999). Her poetry is characterised by its focus on the rich cultural and linguistic heritage of Ireland, as well as its constant crossing of boundaries between, for instance, the mythic and the everyday, sexuality and spirituality, the past and the present. In its celebration of feminine strength, her poetry also offers a much needed alternative in the traditionally male-dominated poetic environment of Ireland. Her works have also been translated in several languages and is a regular broadcaster on Irish radio and television.. ...back
English (Adult): Rita Ann Higgins
Award winning poet and playwright Rita Ann Higgins, a native of Galway, has published eight collections of poetry. Five with Salmon publishing and three with Bloodaxe, including her latest collection 'Throw in the vowels' new and selected poems 2005. She has written four plays and has been writer in residence at the National University of Ireland and also writer in residence with Galway and Offaly County Councils. She was the Green Honors Professor at Texas Christian University in 2000, was awarded an Honorary Fellow at Hong Kong Baptist University in 2006 and is a member of the Irish arts affiliation, Aosdána. ...back
English (Under 17 and Under 12): Gabriel Fitzmaurice
Gabriel Fitzmaurice, a former Chair and Literary Advisor of Writers' Week, the International Writers' Conference in Listowel, Co. Kerry, is author of more than twenty books, including poetry in English and Irish, children's verse in English and Irish, translations from the Irish, essays, and collections of songs and ballads.
An award winner at the Gerard Manley Hopkins Centenary Poetry Competition, he has twice represented Ireland at the European Festival of Poetry in Louvain, Belgium.
A musician and singer, he has played and sung on a number of albums of Irish traditional music. He frequently broadcasts on Irish radio and television and local radio stations on education and the arts....back
German: Zdenka Becker >> Deutsch
Zdenka Becker was born in Slovakia and has lived in Austria for the last 30 years. She has written numerous book and plays and has worked as an actor, dramaturg, director, journalist, teacher, editor and translator. She has won many awards and prizes for her work. Her plays have been performed in Austria, Germany, the Czech and Slovak Republics and in Iowa City, St. Louis, Portland and New York, following residences in several US cities. She has written extensively for television and radio. Her latest book Die Töchter der Róza Bukovská will be available from Autumn 2006. ...back
French: Jean-Philippe Imbert >>Français
Jean-Philippe Imbert is a lecturer in French and Comparative Literature in Dublin City University. He has been President of Adeffi , the Association of French and Francophone Studies in Ireland. His research interests include teratology, literature and the sacred, and the aesthetic and sociocultural expressions of suffering, anguish, the taboo and madness. He translated Thomas Kinsella's The Táin , and is currently
working on Mexican/French Surrealism. ...back
Italian: Antonello Morea >> Italiano
Antonello Morea is from Matera in Southern Italy and he has lived and worked in Rome and Cairo before spending the last 4 years in Ireland completing his PhD. His thesis explored the presence of tradition and continuity in 20th century Italian poetry and the positive creative potential of such a presence. He presented this as an alternative to a view which would emphasise rupture and problems of metric expression and communication. He taught Italian poetry and literature in UCD and is a poet and translator. He has recently translated a selection of poems by Michael Hartnett and published his first collection of poems, Manifesti Umani I-II . He returned to Rome in June 2006 and is currently working on his second volume of Manifesti . ...back
Welsh: Tony Bianchi >>
Cymraeg
Tony
Bianchi is a native of Northumberland and was educated there and at the
University of Wales, where he received a PhD for research on the work of
Samuel Beckett. He is a Fellow of the Academi (the Welsh Academy of Writers)
and a former Fellow of the University of Wales. Until 2002, he headed the
Literature Department of the Arts Council of Wales. He has won a number
of prizes for his poetry in Welsh, including the 2004 Féile Filíochta
Poem of Europe Award. He has also published two novels, Esgyrn Bach and
Pryfeta (winner of the 2007 Daniel Owen Award). He lives in Cardiff.....back
Spanish: Patrick Gallagher >> Español
Patrick Gallagher, Emeritus Professor of Spanish, University College Dublin. A specialist in Golden-Age poetry, his publications include studies of Garcilaso's eclogues, Fray Luis de León's Vida retirada , and Góngora's Polifemo . Claudio Rodríguez, Antonio Colinas, Jaime Siles, Antonio González-Guerrero and Luis Alberto de Cuenca are some of the contemporary Spanish poets he most admires. His favourite Spanish novel (after Don Quixote , of course!) is Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio's El Jarama . ...back
Scottish Gaelic: Maoilios Caimbeul >> Gàidhlig na h-Albann
The Scottish Gaelic judge for this year's competition is Skye-based Maoilios Caimbeul, who has produced five poetry collections over the years. A bilingual selection of poems 1974 – 2006, Gaelic with Gaeilge translations – is due from Coiscém later this year. In his opinion, competitions such as the Féile Filíochta are important for the fostering of Scottish/Irish links and raising the profiles of both languages internationally. He would urge all budding and established poets, young and old, male and female, to take part and continue the ancient tradition of poetic links between the two sibling cultures. ...back
Swedish: Annika Burholm >> Svenska
Annika Burholm comes from Umeå in Northern Sweden. She is a journalist, storyteller, teacher of creative writing and poet. Her most recent anthology, Grå Fåglar Går Sällan På Bio (Grey birds seldom go to the cinema) was published in 2000. "I see poems and other literary texts as stories that want to be told by one unique voice"...back
Jacek Kozik was born in Katowice and is a graduate of the Department of Philosophy and Sociology at the University of Warsaw. He made his literary debut in 1982 when his poems were published in Przegladzie Tygodniowym . His later poems were published in Tygodniku Kulturalnym , Miesieczniku Literackim , Poezja and Literaturze as well in the underground press; in Wyzwaniu published in Warsaw and in Obecnosci , published in Wroclaw. His first collection of poetry entitled Tego nie kupisz ( You won't buy that ) appeared in 1986 and was awarded the Stanisla Pietak National Literary Award . Subsequent collections include Matka noc (Mother night) and Slad po marzeniu (A trace after a dream) . His poems and radio-plays have been broadcast on Polish radio and television. ...back
