Encouragement indeed

Vona Groarke, currently writer-in-residence with Cavan County Council, is the winner of the Strokestown Poetry Award, which was announced last week at the Strokestown Festival. Her second collection, Other People's Houses, is published tomorrow by Gallery Press, who published her first, Shale, in 1994. While not quite as good as the £33,000 figure (erroneously) mentioned on this page on Tuesday, the £3,000 prize, sponsored by An Post among others, should encourage her to keep polishing her words. The other two winners were playwright and poet, Tom McIntyre (£500) and Manus J. McManus (£300).