Poetry Ireland has announced Alvy Carragher (Ireland) and Ali Choudhary (UK) as winners of the 2025 Eavan Boland Award.The 2025 Eavan Boland Award invited applications from early-career poets based in the UK and mid-career poets based in Ireland. Recipients are granted a bursary, a residency split between Trinity College Dublin and the University of Manchester, and further professional development opportunities in 2026.
The award is made possible through the support of Poetry Ireland, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Manchester, and the British Council Ireland. Held every two years, it aims to foster creativity, connection, and cross-border collaboration in poetry.
The 2025 awardees were selected by Professor John McAuliffe (University of Manchester) and Dr Rachael Hegarty (Dublin).
Read the full press release on our website: https://www.poetryireland.ie/…/the-eavan-boland-award-2025
Alvy Carragher grew up by the River Shannon in Galway and Tipperary and has since lived in Louisiana, Dublin, South Korea, and Canada. She is currently based in Dublin. Her previous collections, Falling in love with broken things (2016) and The men I keep under my bed (2021), were published by Salmon Poetry. She has also published a children’s novel, The Cantankerous Molly Darling (2019). Her most recent poetry collection, What Remains the Same (2024), was published by The Gallery Press. She is a recipient of an Arts Council Literary Bursary and has an MA in Writing from the University of Galway. She is a winner of Poetry Ireland’s 2025 Eavan Boland Award.
Ali Choudhary is a writer, poet and multi-disciplinary artist exploring the poetics of violence and intimacy. He is an Emerging Creative Associate at New Writing North for 2025 and was shortlisted for the Tempest Prize. His poetry appears in or is forthcoming from Diode Poetry Journal, Protean Magazine, Sontag Mag, and Frontier Poetry, among others, and his limited-edition chapbook, NIGHT OF THE FIRE, was published by Ethel Zine & Micro Press in May 2025.Ali will be based at TCD School of English for two weeks in November 2025. During that time, he will engage with the School of English, read his work and explore other creative programmes at the University He will also enjoy additional mentoring and opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration in 2026.
