Poetry award in Rome for Athlone's Amy Barry

Athlone writer Amy Barry was "honoured and thrilled" to receive an international award for her poetry in Rome recently.

She travelled to the Italian capital to receive the Città del Galateo Prize, IX edition, for foreign poetry in the English language.

The award for her winning poem, ‘We Want Another Life’, was presented by Regina Reis, the Presidente dell'associazione internazionale at the Dante Alighieri Association.

Amy extended her deepest thanks to jury committee of the Città del Galateo Prize IX edition, which was dedicated to Antonio De Ferraris.

She was delighted to meet other recipients, including Agron Shele, a Belgian editor and publisher, and Igor Issorf, a poet from Naples.

A long-time resident of Athlone, Amy has been published globally and her poems have been translated into languages including Italian, Turkish, Azerbaijani, Spanish and Persian. She is featured in Reverberations Series 2 on RTE Radio One Extra. Her poems have also been shortlisted, longlisted, highly commended, and have won local and international awards.

Nominated for the Pushcart 2021 Poetry Prize, Amy has been awarded Literature bursaries from The Arts Council Ireland and Words Ireland.

In addition, she has organised several poetry and music events in Athlone, including at the Dean Crowe Theatre, the Athlone Springs and Prince of Wales hotels, and at the Book Upstairs in Dublin.

She has given several poetry classes to pupils of the Cornafulla NS.

Amy is an Honorary Member of the Neruda Literary Association in Italy, and in 2017 she was a recipient of the Neruda Award for Poetry in Crispiano, Italy.

. "I am grateful to Claudia Piccinno from Bologna for the invitation to submit my work," said Amy, "and thank you to the Arts Council for making the trip possible,” she concluded.