THE winner of the 2024 Michael Hartnett Poetry Award 2024 has been named, with Tara Bergin heralded as a “master of the specific incident and illustrative detail” and a poet of “tremendous courage”.
Tara’s winning collection, Savage Tales (Carcanet 2022), has been described by one of this year’s judges, poet Mark Roper, as “utterly original, fiercely funny, compulsively readable, very vulnerable, and hugely enjoyable”.
“Among many strong collections submitted this year for the Michael Hartnett Award, it stood out clearly as the winner,” Mr Roper said.
“It takes tremendous courage to present work in this way, in the refusal to allow anything inessential onto the page, thus leaving the greater part of every page empty.”
His fellow judge, poet Vona Groarke, praised Savage Tales as an “ingenious book”.
“These are poems that cut into and inscribe contemporary life in ways that are, by turns, bitingly smart, inquisitive, and fierce,” she said in praise of Bergin.
Speaking from her home in North East England, where she is now based, winning poet Ms Bergin said: “Michael Hartnett said that the act of poetry was a ‘rebel act’. I agree.”
“It makes for a strange sort of existence, often marked by doubt, uncertainty, solitude, and failure. To receive this award feels like seeing a smoke signal go up from across the expanse. It says something like ‘keep going’. That’s of immeasurable importance to any poet.”
Congratulating Ms Bergin on her win, Mayor of Limerick John Moran said that “the power of poetry to transcend daily life and take the reader into other worlds is special and Tara’s winning collection is a worthy winner”.
Ms Bergin will be presented with the Michael Hartnett Poetry Award on the opening night of Éigse Michael Hartnett, which takes place in Newcastle West from October 3 to 6.
The award, valued at €8,000, is supported by the Arts Council and by Limerick City and County Council and is presented on alternate years to collections in English and Irish.
