Amelia Loulli was announced as the winner for Slip, published by Jonathan Cape, during the Award Night readings in the Crescent Arts Centre, Belfast on Monday 23 June 2025.  

Amelia Loulli is a PhD candidate at Newcastle University where she researches the poetics of breath and writing trauma. In 2021 she won a Northern Writers' Award and in 2023 she was writer in residence at the British School in Rome. She currently lives in Cumbria with her three teenagers and their whippet.

Speaking about the award Amelia Loulli said:

“Thank you to the judges for choosing Slip as their winner. It's hard to articulate how much it means, all these years after beginning to write Slip's first poems, to have this work recognised with such an honour. I wrote Slip in the hope that it might challenge inherited shame by opening conversations about the stories and experiences we find it hardest to share. I also wrote these poems as I write all of my poems- in a state of wonder at the immense power of language and in conversation with the poets I most appreciate and admire- many of whom are past winners of this very prize. I'm extremely grateful to the judges and to the Seamus Heaney centre for confirming Slip in such excellent company. ” 

This year’s judges were Professor Fran Brearton, Seamus Heaney Centre Fellow Fiona Benson, and Dr. Dawn Watson.  

The audience heard from all shortlisted collections at the Award Night, as part of the Seamus Heaney Poetry Summer School. Each collection was introduced by a member of the student critique club. The event took place at the Crescent Arts Centre in Belfast, supported by No Alibis Bookstore. 

The 2025 Shortlist included: 

• The Butterfly House, by Kathryn Bevis (Seren)
• High Jump as Icarus Story, by Gustav Parker Hibbett (Banshee Press)
• rock flight, by Hasib Hourani (Prototype)
• The Iron Bridge, by Rebecca Hurst (Carcanet Press)
• Food for the Dead, by Charlotte Shevchenko Knight (Jonathan Cape)

The Seamus Heaney Centre Poetry Prize is awarded annually to a writer whose first full collection has been published in the preceding year, by a UK or Ireland-based publisher. The winning writer receives £5,000 and is invited to participate in the Seamus Heaney Centre’s busy calendar of literary events. 

Media enquiries to Zara McBrearty at Queen’s Communications Office on email: z.mcbrearty@qub.ac.uk or mob: 07795676858.