POET AND Nobel laureate Séamus Heaney was last night presented with the David Cohen Prize for Literature at a ceremony in London.
The British poet laureate, Andrew Motion, who was chair of the judges, called Heaney a venerated public figure whose reputation “is so exalted, judging panels might be expected to feel some trepidation about bestowing another prize on him. But the self-renewing force of his writing, and the sheer scale of his achievement make the award of the Cohen Prize an absolutely right and proper act of recognition”.
Motion said that for the last 40 years “Heaney’s poems have crystallised the story of our times, in language which has bravely and memorably continued to extend its imaginative reach”.
In his acceptance speech, Heaney said: “Much about the David Cohen Prize makes it highly honorific: first of all there’s the list of the previous winners, a roll call of the best; there’s the fact that you don’t enter for it but are chosen from the wide field of your contemporaries and then there’s the verification of that reference to ‘lifetime achievement’ – a lovely reward when offered by a panel of such distinguished writers and readers.”
The prize, which is biennial and given for a lifetime’s achievement, is worth £40,000. It is funded by the John S Cohen Foundation and administered by the Arts Council of England. Heaney joins a list of previous winners, including VS Naipaul, Harold Pinter, Doris Lessing, Thom Gunn and two other Irish recipients, William Trevor and Derek Mahon, who won it in 2007.
The winner of the prize nominates the recipient of the €12,000 Clarissa Luard Award. This award is funded by the Arts Council of England and is given to a literature organisation that supports young writers or an individual writer under 35. Heaney chose Poetry Aloud, an annual poetry speaking competition for post-primary students in Ireland, run by the National Library in association with Poetry Ireland.
Jane O’Hanlon of Poetry Ireland said the award was a heartening expression of support which acknowledged the organisations’ commitment to high-quality literary arts practice with young people.
Congratulating Heaney, the director of the Arts Council, Mary Cloake, said his contribution to literary life was immeasurable and the popularity of his work a “testament to the resonance of poetry in contemporary life”. She said the success of the Poetry Aloud initiative demonstrated a national enthusiasm for poetry.
Heaney was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1995 and District and Circle, his eleventh collection, was awarded the TS Eliot Prize in 2006. The Derry-born poet, who will be 70 next month, is the subject of a new television documentary to be screened on RTÉ on Easter Monday.