Tipperary woman wins top prize in Waterford poetry competition
Annette Condon, from Cahir, took home the top prize in the Waterford Poetry Prize 2026 with her poem ‘Splitting the A’
The Arts Office, Waterford City & Co Council announced the winners of the national Waterford Poetry Prize 2026 recently at the Waterford Writers Weekend.
With prize money of over €1,000 it was judged for the second year by the writer Jessica Traynor.
First place was awarded to Annette Condon, from Cahir, with her poem ‘Splitting the A’.
Annette’s work has appeared in a number of journals including The Waxed Lemon, Skylight 47, New Isles Press and The Wexford Bohemian.
She was awarded second place in the 2024 Francis Ledwidge Poetry Competition.
Annette has been involved as a writer with Applefest, the Clonmel Junction Arts Festival and Poetry Plus in Carrick-on-Suir.
She participated in the Poetry as Commemoration project and has published several historical articles.
Second place ‘City Bus English Test’ by Jim Maguire.
With a background in music, Jim has written frequently about music and musicians. His collection Music Field (Poetry Salzburg) was shortlisted for the Shine-Strong Award in 2014.
His work has received numerous prizes and awards, including a Literature Bursary from the Arts Council and the Strokestown International Poetry Prize.
In 2016, he represented Poetry Ireland at the Iowa City Book Festival. He lived for many years in Korea, the setting for his short story collection Quiet People.
Third place ‘Asking AI what Happens When …..‘ by Anne Tannam, Dublin. Anne is the award winning author of four poetry collections.
The latest ‘dismantle’ was published with Salmon Poetry in 2024.
She is a former Poet in Residence with Poetry Ireland (2023-2025) and in 2025 was also Bealtaine Festival’s 30th Anniversary Poet in Residence.
A regular at Electric Picnic, she has performed internationally in festivals in India, Kosovo and Berlin.
Her work has featured in The Irish Times and RTÉ and has been translated into Polish and Romanian.
Waterford Arts Officer and the Writers Weekend curator, Margaret Organ thanked Jessica for the months spent reading the entries and said that the volume of poems received was testament to the healthy state of poetry in Ireland.
She remarked that the Waterford Poetry Prize is one of the few remaining free to enter poetry competitions in the country and congratulated Annette Condon’s work as a worthy overall winner.