The Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award is an Irish poetry award for a collection of poems by an author who has not previously been published in collected form. It is confined to poets born on the island of Ireland, or who have Irish nationality, or are long-term residents of Ireland. It is based on an open competition whose closing date is in July each year. The award was founded by the Patrick Kavanagh Society in 1971 to commemorate the poet.
Competition secretaries were Martin Hanratty (1971–72), Tom Quinn (1973–83), Magdalene Quinn (1984–2000), Daigh Quinn (2001–02), and Rosaleen Kearney (2003 onwards). Since 2009 the Judge of the Award and President of the Society has been the poet, novelist and screenwriter Brian Lynch. Past judges have included Brendan Kennelly, John Montague, Gerald Dawe, Thomas McCarthy, Theo Dorgan, Paula Meehan, Conor O'Callaghan, Vona Groarke, Moya Cannon, and Gabriel Rosenstock. It is now run by the society in conjunction with the Patrick Kavanagh Centre, Inniskeen.[1]
Since 2011, the award is presented at the end of September during the annual Kavanagh Weekend at the Patrick Kavanagh Centre.