Mayo poet Finola Cahill wins prestigious award

The prestigious Red Line Book Festival poetry competition attracts hundreds of entries from all across the island of Ireland annually.

This year, Red Line Book Festival was honoured to have award-winning poet Patrick Deely to judge the competition entries. Among the shortlist of finalists he chose was Finola Cahill from Ballina, who was picked for an award for her poem 'Magic Tricks'.

Shortlisted poets were all invited to read their poem at the poetry night and awards event at the Red Line Book Festival in Dublin on October 16 last, and Finola's poem got third place overall.

Alread this year, Finola was crowned winner of the 2024 Single Poem Award at Listowel Writers Week, while last year she won the 2023 Waterford Poetry Prize.

Her poetry can be found in the London Magazine, Trasna, Propel, and others. She is at work on her first collection and a longer piece of fiction.

This year's judge, Patrick Deeley, is a poet, memoirist and children’s writer from Loughrea, Co. Galway. Keepsake is his eighth collection of poems with Dedalus Press. His work has featured in many anthologies and literary journals worldwide, and had been translated to French, Spanish, Italian, Ukrainian and other languages. His best-selling, critically acclaimed memoir, The Hurley Maker’s Son, was published by Transworld in 2016.

The Red Line Book Festival ran from October 14 to 20, with over 40 literary events held in venues across South Co. Dublin with an eclectic mix of established writers and new voices. It was a celebration of literature, storytelling, and creativity and has grown to become one of the highlights of the cultural calendar.