Online Festival Stage
& Via Facebook
(facebook.com/winter.warmer)
& Via YouTube
(www.youtube.com/OBheal)
Ó Bhéal’s 9th Winter Warmer (and 1st hybrid) festival presents 30 poets live from eight countries. Almost half of these featured guests will appear in-person at Nano Nagle Place, with others appearing virtually. All events will be free to access on our Festival Stage and via our usual social media channels. In-person audiences for all events will be limited to 60 and will run on a first-come first-serve basis.
The festival will host two poetry workshops, music from Nóirín Ní Riain (in-person), a filmed poetry play, a round table discussion centered on Nurturing Poetry with event organisers and poets from three port cities, a Many Tongues of Cork / An Earth Song session and a closed-mic set for poets who have featured regularly in Ó Bhéal’s online open-mic sessions during 2021.
The shortlist and prize-giving for Ó Bhéal’s International Poetry-Film Competition will be screened and simulcast, as will an additional, special selection of poetry-films made in Ireland.
(€3 suggested donation)
7.00pm – 9.00pm
Hybridity: Poems That Cross the Line with MK Chavez
WORKSHOP FULL
In this workshop, we will explore poems that live in a liminal space. Hybrid poetics blurs the lines between poetry and other literary genres.
The benefits of hybrid writing are many; it provides writers with opportunities to explore and expand writing practices, especially for those who are writing to make the invisible visible. Participants will survey a sampling of hybrid poems and have an opportunity to take liberties with a variety of genres, styles, and techniques and leave class with a literary chimera of their own.
MK Chavez is an Afro-Latinx writer, educator, editor and coach. She is the author of Mothermorphosis, Dear Animal, and several chapbooks including, A Brief History of the Selfie. She curates the reading series Lyrics & Dirges and is co-director of the Berkeley Poetry Festival. She is a recipient of the Alameda County Arts Leadership Award, the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award, and the 2021 San Francisco Foundation/Nomadic Press literary award.
Chavez has received fellowships from Hedgebrook, Caldera, CantoMundo, Community of Writers, Sitka, and VONA. Her most recent work can be found in the Academy of Poets Poem-A-Day series and at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco with the Voice of Trees projects.
12.30pm – 2.30pm
Rewilding Poems with Molly Twomey
WORKSHOP FULL
To book a place, please email info@obheal.ie
– Lorna Goodison, Mslexia.
In this workshop, we will experiment with allowing animals into our poems to help us approach our preoccupations in new and exciting ways. Poets will be sent an email with a selection of poetry to be read prior to the workshop that make effective use of faunae to explore themes such as love and grief.
Poets will also be provided with a prompt to write their own poem (no longer than 40 lines) to be sent to participants at least a week before the event. Poets will be required to read their fellow participants’ work in advance of the workshop and to provide feedback during the session.
Workshop Agenda: 10-minute introduction; 20-minute discussion of prescribed poems; 30-minute feedback session; 5–10-minute break; 50-minute feedback session.
Molly Twomey holds an MA in Creative Writing from University College Cork where she received the title of College Scholar. She has been published in Poetry Ireland Review, Banshee, the Irish Times, Crannóg, Mslexia, The Stinging Fly, and elsewhere. In 2019, she won the Padraic Colum Poetry Prize.
In 2020, Ó Bhéal published her chapbook Spoken Worlds, Southern Syllables, co-authored by Jim Crickard. The same year, she won the Waterford Poetry Prize and was featured on RTÉ’s Arena. In 2021, she won the Eavan Boland Mentorship Award and was chosen for Poetry Ireland’s Introductions Series. Recently awarded an Arts Council Literature Bursary, she is working on her debut collection.
3.00pm – 4.30pm
The Sacrificial Wind
a Poetry Play (on video) plus live Q&A
Written by: Lorna Shaughnessy
Directed by: Max Hafler
Lorna Shaughnessy’s poetic examination of the characters around the story of the sacrifice of Iphigenia by her father Agamemnon asks big questions about war patriarchy and society. Performed in the O’Donoghue Theatre in Galway Ireland , it was also performed in Cuirt 2018 and subsequently in the Seamus Heaney HomePlace. The piece has been re-imagined for online performance.
Reviving this piece online allowed both the epic nature of the Trojan War and the personal stories of those involved to resonate with the audience equally. With an evocative soundscape by Barra Convery, music by Max Bromberg and a skilful edit by John Margetts this online piece filmed in lockdown with the actors’ phones only, achieves an extraordinarily broad sweep .
| Michael Irwin – Euripides | Orla Tubridy – Iphigenia | ||
| Catherine Denning – Clytemnestra/Oracle 2 | Sam Fearraigh – Soldier | ||
| Kate Murray – Oracle 1 | John Rice – Achilles | ||
| Conor Geoghegan – Calchas | Patrick O’Malley – Agamemnon | ||
| Sarah O’Toole – Chrysothemis | Eilish McCarthy – Electra |
Lorna Shaughnessy has published four poetry collections, Torching the Brown River, Witness Trees, Anchored, and Lark Water (Salmon Poetry, 2021) as well as a chapbook, Song of the Forgotten Shulamite (Lapwing). In 2018 she was awarded an Artist’s Bursary by the Arts Council of Ireland. Her monologues on the story of Iphigenia were staged in Cúirt International Literature Festival in 2017 and the Heaney HomePlace in 2018, and subsequently adapted for video screening in 2021. She lectures in Hispanic Studies in NUI Galway and translates Galician, Spanish and Latin American poetry.
Max Hafler began his professional life as an actor, is a theatre tutor, director and writer who specialises primarily in teaching Michael Chekhov Technique and Voice and directing work. He teaches at NUIG, and has guested at Boston MIT, and other international colleges. He has worked extensively on youth theatre programmes. His book Teaching Voice was published by Nick Hern Books in 2016, and was his most recent book, What Country Friends is This? (2021). He is director of Chekhov Training and Performance Ireland and trained at MICHA and MCE.
5.00pm – 6.30pm
Nóirín Ní Riain | Rita Kelly | Antony Rowland | Anna T. Szabó
Nóirín Ní Riain is an internationally acclaimed singer who has performed worldwide with diverse artists such as John O Donohue, Anjelica Huston, David Whyte, Seamus Heaney, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Sineád O Connor and Russell Crowe. She holds a doctorate in Theology, the first awarded by MIC, University of Limerick in 2003 and five years ago, Nóirín was ordained an Inter Faith minister in London.
Author of several books, she has recorded extensively and now teaches theology and music at University, officiates at ceremonies, is a spiritual counsellor and with her two sons, offers on line Dámh Imeall Celtic Spirituality schools at turasdanam.com. Cork city holds fond memories for her, graduating as she did from UCC and she is honoured to be part of this prestigious Winter Warmer Festival.
Tá aitheantas idirnáisiúnta ag Nóirín Ní Riain ní amháin mar amhránaí ach tá cáil mór uirthi mar diagaire, scríbhneoir, minister idir chreidimh agus léachtóir chomh maith. Do gnóthaig sí dochtúireacht ó MIC UL an chéad ceann riamh san diagacht a bhronn an Ollscoil seo agus I 2017, oirníodh ina ministir í. Sna laethanta seo, leannan sí ar aghaidh le scríbhneoireacht, mar diagaire agus ministir agus ag léachtóireacht san Ollscoil agus ar líne.
Born in Galway, 1953, Rita Kelly spent her formative years in East Galway, near and in Ballinasloe. She writes in English & Irish – poetry, fiction, drama and criticism. She has won many awards in her long career and her work has been translated into various languages. She has published 6 collections of poetry and her 7th is due out in 2022. Her work is included in many anthologies here and abroad. She has been Writer-in-Residence in Cos Laois, Cavan and Kilkenny.
Her work has been placed on various courses, including Yale University. Her latest book, in Irish, Le Gean ó Mháirtín (Coiscéim, 2021) is an account of the friendship and correspondence between herself and the Aran Island poet, Máirtín Ó Direáin. This year she has begun a PhD in Creative Writing at UCC. She is working on a new collection of Irish poetry and on a memoir.
Rugadh Rita Kelly i nGaillimh, 1953. Tógadh í ar Achréidh na Gaillimhe formhór ach an taca ama a chaith sí i Rachra nó Droichead na Sionnaine, i gCo Ua Fáilí. Tá a cuid saothair lonnaithe sad á theanga – Béarla is Gaeilge, idir fhilíocht, prós, léirmheastóireacht is drámaíocht. Tá chuid mhaith duaiseanna buaite aici le linn a saoil liteartha. Freisin tá aistriúchán curtha ar chuid mhaith dá saothar go teanga eile na hEorapa. Tá teacht ar a saothar sna mbailiúcháin is sna hantalóga mór le rá, anseo is thar lear, le fada an lá. Tá cuid dá saothar ar chúrsaí áirithe ollscoile anseo is thar lear freisin, ina measc tá Ollscoil Yale. Do chaith sí achair áirithe, is do bhain sí an-taitneamh as, bheith ina Scríbhneoir Isteach i gCo Laoise, an Chabháin, is Cill Chainnigh. Níos luaithe i mbliana, d’fhoilsigh sí Le Gean ó Mháirtín (Coiscéim, 2021) ina dhéanainn sí cur síos ar an gcomhfhreagras is an gcaidreas a mhair idir í fhéin is Máirtín Ó Direáin. Faoi láthair tá sí ag obair ar PhD faoi stiúir Eibhear Walshe i gColáiste Ollscoil Chorcaigh.
Antony Rowland has published three poetry collections: The Land of Green Ginger (Salt, 2008)—which was shortlisted for the Michael Murphy Award, I Am a Magenta Stick (Salt, 2012), and M (Arc Publications, 2017). He was awarded the 10K Manchester Poetry Prize in 2012, and his poems have been anthologised in Identity Parade: New British and Irish Poets (Bloodaxe, 2010), and New Poetries III (Carcanet, 2003).
He received an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors in 2000, and recorded for the national Poetry Archive in 2009, and the Lyrikline (Berlin) in 2014. The Dutch government elected him as a UK poetry ‘ambassador’ for 2016: his poetry was read on national television, and shown on screens at Schipol airport and Amsterdam Central Station. In 2018, the poem ‘Newark’ from M was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem, and was published in The Forward Book of Poetry 2019.
Photo by György Dragomán
Hungarian poet, writer and translator Anna T. Szabó was born in Transylvania (Romania) in 1972, left the dictatorship and moved to Hungary with her family in 1987. She studied English and Hungarian literature at the University of Budapest, and received her PhD in 2007. Since 1995 she has published nine volumes of poetry for adults, seven books for children and three short story collections (two of them shortlisted for the Libri Prize among best books of the year).
Szabó has received many prizes and grants, including Scholarship of the Berlin Academy of Arts (2006), ULNÖ Krems (Austria) 2007, IBBY prize for translation (2013), Writer of the year (2021), used to be the poetry editor of The Hungarian Quarterly and is member of the Széchenyi Academy of Arts. She has translated in abundance (poems, drama and prose, including Shakespeare, Updike, dr. Seuss and Beatrix Potter), occasionally writes drama, essays, articles and reviews, her poems are available in several languages. Her new English poetry volume is titled Trust, published by Arc in 2021, selected and translated by Clare Pollard. She often performs together with jazz and classical musicians, while working freelance; lives near Budapest with her husband the novelist György Dragomán and their sons.
7.00pm – 8.30pm
Eòghan Stiùbhart | Alan Titley | Marcas Mac An Tuairner
Eòghan Stewart is an unapologetically indigenous Highland writer, but with an international and universal outlook. Although his primary occupations are education, broadcasting and sport, he also, in his free time, creates poems and verses which closely delve into the connections between nature, land, sea, love, and spirit. Eòghan has strong Irish connections through shinty-hurling, through Irish language and through family.
Tha Eòghan Stiùbhart na sgrìobhadair Gàidhealach tùsanach gun nàire no gun leisgeul, ach le sealladh eadar-nàiseanta agus co-choitcheann. Ged ‘s e foghlam, craoladh agus spòr na prìomh dhreuchdan aige, san ùine shaor aige, bidh e a’ cur an cèill dàin is rannan a bhios gu dlùth a’ rùrachd a’ cheangail eadar nàdar, tìr, muir, gaol, gràdh agus spiorad. Tha ceanglaichean làidir aig Eòghan ri Èirinn tro iomain, tro chànan agus tro theaghlach agus tha e air a dhòigh a bhith an-sàs san fhèis seo.
Photo by Máire Uí Mhaicín
A Corkman by birth and upbringing, Alan Titley taught and travelled in Africa, also taught deaf children in Dublin. As a scholar he was Head of the Irish Department in St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra (now DCU), and Professor of Modern Irish in UCC. Has written novels, stories, fables, plays, TV scripts, essays and poetry. He also writes a weekly column for The Irish Times.
His latest collection of poetry is ‘…liricí gearra’ (‘short lyrics’) published by Coiscéim (2021). He has also written a verse novel An Bhean Feasa (CIC, 2014) and verse dramas, one of which An Filleadh (‘The Return’) was produced in the Abbey Theatre on Easter Monday 2016 as part of the centenary of the rebellion.
Is Corcaíoch é Alan Titley. Chaith tamaill ag teagasc san Afraic, ag múineadh páistí bodhra, ina Cheann ar Roinn na Gaeilge i gColáiste Phádraig, Droim Conrach, agus ina ollamh le Nua-Ghaeilge in UCC. Úrscéalta, gearrscéalta, fabhalscéalta, drámaí, scripteanna teilifíse, scoláireacht agus filíocht scríte aige. Is é ‘…liricí gearra’ (Coiscéim 2021) an leabhar filíochta is déanaí uaidh. Scríobh sé úrscéal i bhfoirm filíochta An Bhean Feasa (Cló Iar-Chonnacht 2014) mar gheall ar mhnaoi Éireannach a cuireadh chun báis mar chailleach draíochta i Sasana Nua sa 17ú haois.
Marcas Mac An Tuairner (Mark Spencer Turner) is a critically-acclaimed and award-winning writer, working through Scottish Gaelic, English, and Polari. He has published three collections of poetry – Deò (Gracenote, 2013), Lus na Tùise (Bradan Press, 2016), Dùileach (Evertype. 2021) – and the co-authored pamphlet beul-fo-bhonn (Tapsalteerie, 2017). He was the winner of the Wigtown Gaelic Poetry Prize in 2017 and has been shortlisted four times for that award, as well as the Duais de hÍde at Strokestown.
He has also garnered accolades from The Highland Literary Salon, Skye Reading Room, Scottish Association of Writers, Federation of Writers (Scotland) and the National William Blake Prize. His textual and film poem ‘An Leabhar II’ was named by the Scottish Poetry Library as one of the Best Scottish Poems in 2020. This year he won the award for poetry for the second year running at the Royal National Mòd. Marcas is the poet-in-residence at the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh and is the Gaelic editor of two of Scotland’s most significant literary periodicals – The Poets’ Republic and Northwords Now. He also works as the Gaelic Service Development Co-ordinator at the Scottish Poetry Library, where he was a member of the board for two terms between 2017 and 2021.
9.00pm – 10.30pm
Gabeba Baderoon | James Cagney | Victoria Kennefick
Photo by Victor Dlamini
Gabeba Baderoon is a poet and scholar. She is the author of the poetry collections, The Dream in the Next Body (Kwela, 2005), A hundred silences (Kwela, 2006) and The History of Intimacy (Kwela, 2018), and the monograph, Regarding Muslims: from Slavery to Post-apartheid. Baderoon is the recipient of the Daimler Prize for South African Poetry, the Elisabeth Eybers Poetry Prize, the University of Johannesburg Prize for South African Writing and two best book awards from the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences.
Baderoon is a member of the editorial board of the African Poetry Book Fund, which has published over 70 collections since 2012, and has served on the juries of the Neustadt, Brunel and Windham-Campbell Prizes. Baderoon has received writing fellowships from the Nordic Africa Institute, Civitella Ranieri, the University of Witwatersrand, the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study and the Rockefeller Centre at Bellagio. A North American edition of her award-winning collection, The History of Intimacy, was published this year by Northwestern University Press.
James Cagney is a poet from Oakland, Ca. His first book, Black Steel Magnolias In The Hour of Chaos Theory won the 2018 Josephine Miles Award from PEN Oakland. His second collection, Martian: The Saint Of Loneliness is the winner of the 2021 James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets. It will be published in 2022 by Nomadic Press. Please visit JamesCagneyPoet.com for more information.
Victoria Kennefick’s first collection, Eat or We Both Starve (Carcanet Press, 2021), has been shortlisted for the 2021 T. S. Eliot Prize and the 2021 Costa Book Awards. Her pamphlet, White Whale (Southword Editions, 2015), won the Munster Literature Centre Fool for Poetry Chapbook Competition and the Saboteur Award for Best Poetry Pamphlet.
Her work has appeared in Poetry, The Poetry Review, PN Review, Poetry Ireland Review, The Stinging Fly, Poetry News, Prelude, Copper Nickel, The Irish Times, Ambit, bath magg, Banshee and elsewhere. She is an Arts Council of Ireland Next Generation Artist and a recipient of a WORDS Ireland fellowship.
11.30am – 12.30pm
(A single screening of 15 films)
Selected from Ó Bhéal’s 9th International Poetry-Film Competition entries
These fifteen, specially selected entries represent poetry-films recently made in Ireland. While they did not make the (extremely competitive) competition shortlist, they are nonetheless highly worthy compositions which we are thrilled and honoured to present.
This screening will be viewed by a live audience at Nano Nagle Place, Cork & streamed via our website festival stage and Facebook & YouTube channels.
You can view the selection at this link. The films were chosen from 184 submissions received from 122 filmmakers in 32 countries. For this year’s competition shortlist please follow this link.
1.00pm – 2.15pm
Nqobizitha Vella | Cecilia Gamez | Anja Bakker
An Earth Song is a multilingual poetry collaboration produced by Good Day Cork, creators of the multilingual prose and poetry gatherings Many Tongues of Cork. Tina Pisco, the first Writer-in-Residence @ Cork City Libraries facilitated a multilingual writing group of six people who worked together for several months to create An Earth Song. The group discussed feelings, reactions, hopes, and fears related to climate change, as well as how our multilingual backgrounds influence how we express ourselves.
Good Day Cork is a positive news and event space committed to change the narrative. Many Tongues of Cork was launched by Good Day Cork in 2019 to be a space filled with prose & poetry in different languages. This popular Cork event, produced by Joanna Dukkupati, takes place throughout each year, reaching further on each occasion into new corners and immigramt populations of the wider Cork community. All are welcome to enjoy the flavourful sounds of just a few of the many languages spoken in our diverse city. Poems will be presented simultaneously in sign language (ISL), by Cork sign-language interpreter Ray Greene.
Cinthya Torrez Quispe was born in a community in the Aroma province, in La Paz, Bolivia. Cinthya’s familial roots are Aymara and she speaks the native Aymara language. Cinthya moved to Cork in 2020. Cinthya hopes for a better world and proactively takes actions so as not to hurt the earth.
Claudia Maria Zedda, (She/Her) is originally from Cagliari, Sardinia (Italy) and moved to Ireland in 2019 for the experience of living in a different country. While in Ireland, Claudia is pursuing a degree in International Development and Food Policy at UCC, Ireland. Apart from climate change, Claudia is passionate about human rights, social justice and equality for all. Claudia is the Vice Chairperson of UCC Fáilte Refugees Society and is also the Opinion Editor of the UCC Express.
Tina Pisco is Cork City LIbraries’ first ever Writer-in-Residence. She was born in Spain, to a multilingual, multicultural family. She moved to West Cork in 1992 where she raised her four daughters on 3 acres which she calls “her little corner of paradise”, and which she has dedicated to rewilding. She believes that climate change is the most important challenge humanity has ever faced.
Dr. Lekha Menon Margassery is a gold medalist in biochemistry, a classical dancer and a community activist. She was also one of the 100 finalists to qualify for the ‘Mars One Project- a one way ticket to Mars”. She moved to Cork in 2008 from India. She was awarded as PhD Researcher of the Year at Environmental Research Institute, UCC in 2012.
Presently, she works as a Technical Officer at the School of Microbiology, UCC. She is the President of UCC Indian Alumni Community, Board member of Alumni and Development Office and also one of the prominent members of the Indian Community Support Group initiated by the Embassy of India, Dublin. She is the founder of an Indian Dance School in Cork called “Aatma”. She was the first Indian to stand for local elections in Cork.
Nqobizitha Vella is a Zimbabwean writer. She came to Ireland in 2015 and she resides in County Cork. Her passion in the climate change discussion would be the practicality of going back to the drawing board of how we lived in the olden days by readopting ways that revive the earth in all aspects. Her favourite sayings being, “From plants we get our healing” and “Let food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food”.
Cecilia Gamez completed a degree in International Relations from the National Autonomous University of Mexico and an Intercultural Studies diploma from Växjö University in Sweden. After teaching for about 15 years, she moved to Ireland in 2005. Cecilia is one of the founders and the General Director of PROGRAMAS EDUCATIVOS INTERCULTURALES, A.C., a unique organization in Mexico that funds volunteering experiences in social development initiatives through the promotion of intercultural exchange programmes.
As co-founder of the Mexican Community in Cork she has organised cultural events that include plastic art expressions, dance, music and traditional food, in collaboration with UCC, MTU and other local groups.
Anja Bakker is a Dutch Canadian, musician, writer and pilgrim who spins her tales and sings her songs as she follows in the footsteps of all those who have gone before her. She is in awe of the world she lives in and wants to witness and perform in a much of it as she can. During these adventures she’s always accompanied by Sean, her 26 string harp.
Having walked from West Cork to both Santiago de Compostela and Rome, next spring she and Sean will set off to walk from West Cork to Jerusalem. She is an award winning musician and has performed in places as diverse as the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City, Reims Cathedral in France, DeBarra’s in Clonakilty and Amsterdamse Stads Schouwburg in the Netherlands but to name a few.
Joanna Dukkipati is an enthusiastic gatherer of all things that raise kindness and positivity in our community. Joanna grew up in India and has the experience of living and working in Kenya, Zimbabwe, Australia, Zambia and Mozambique. She believes in the strength of diversity. She is the founding editor of Good Day News, a magazine that only features local uplifting news. Joanna began Many Tongues of Cork to highlight the different languages spoken in Cork with the goals of bringing people closer together and learning about different cultures.
Ray Greene became a qualified Irish Sign Language/English Interpreter in 2004. She has been working as a full time Interpreter ever since and works in a broad variety of settings such as education and training, employment, religious ceremonies, theatre, counselling, medical work … and poetry sessions. This is Ray’s fourth time interpreting at the festival.
For more about Ray, visit corkinterpreter.com/aboutus/raygreene.
2.30pm – 4.00pm
Ó Bhéal’s annual Closed Mic session showcases poets who have contributed to Ó Bhéal’s open-mic sessions on Monday nights, over the past year. Contributors include Catherine Ronan, Margaret O’Regan, Mary O’Connell, Brendan Mulcahy, Matt Mooney, Cathal Holden, Mags Creedon, Jim Crickard, Lucy Holme, Cédric Bikond and Pamela Campbell.
7.00pm – 8.30pm
Nóirín Ní Riain | Máire Dinny Wren | Piotr Florczyk | Greg Delanty
Nóirín Ní Riain is an internationally acclaimed singer who has performed worldwide with diverse artists such as John O Donohue, Anjelica Huston, David Whyte, Seamus Heaney, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Sineád O Connor and Russell Crowe. She holds a doctorate in Theology, the first awarded by MIC, University of Limerick in 2003 and five years ago, Nóirín was ordained an Inter Faith minister in London.
Author of several books, she has recorded extensively and now teaches theology and music at University, officiates at ceremonies, is a spiritual counsellor and with her two sons, offers on line Dámh Imeall Celtic Spirituality schools at turasdanam.com. Cork city holds fond memories for her, graduating as she did from UCC and she is honoured to be part of this prestigious Winter Warmer Festival.
Tá aitheantas idirnáisiúnta ag Nóirín Ní Riain ní amháin mar amhránaí ach tá cáil mór uirthi mar diagaire, scríbhneoir, minister idir chreidimh agus léachtóir chomh maith. Do gnóthaig sí dochtúireacht ó MIC UL an chéad ceann riamh san diagacht a bhronn an Ollscoil seo agus I 2017, oirníodh ina ministir í. Sna laethanta seo, leannan sí ar aghaidh le scríbhneoireacht, mar diagaire agus ministir agus ag léachtóireacht san Ollscoil agus ar líne.
Máire Dinny Wren lives in Gaoth Dobhair in county Donegal where she writes poetry and short fiction. Máire’s first collection of short stories, Go mbeinnse choíche saor, was published by Éabhlóid in 2015. Some of her previous short fiction was included in the collection Go dtí an lá bán, also published by Éabhlóid. Máire has received numerous awards for her stories, including Duais Fhoras na Gaeilge at The Listowel Writers’ week in 2010 for Ag Téarnamh chun Baile. A radio adaption of the story ‘Thar an Tairseach’ was broadcast by Drama on One, RTÉ Radio One and was shortlisted for the Prix Europa 2013 award in Berlin for best radio drama.
Máire has seen two collections of her poems published: Ó Bhile go Bile (Coiscéim, 2011) and her second collection, Tine Ghealáin (Éabhlóid, 2019), which was shortlisted for the Oireachtas na Gaeilge, Gradam Uí Shuilleabháin Award in 2020. Her poems and short stories have been broadcast on RTÉ One, RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta, Raidió Fáilte and BBC Radio Ulster and have been published in such publications as Poetry Ireland Review, Irish Pages, Comhar, an tUltach, Feasta and the Winners’ Anthology 2010 of the Listowel Writers’ Week.
Le cois abhainn na Cláidí, faoi scáth na hEaragaile i dTír Chonaill atá cónaí ar Mháire Dinny Wren, áit a mbíonn sí ag scríobh filíochta agus gearrscéalta. In 2011, d’fhoilsigh Coiscéim a céad bailiúchán filíochta, Ó Bhile go Bile, agus tá go leor duaiseanna liteartha bronnta uirthi as a cuid saothair ó shin; ina measc, Comórtas Filíochta Uí Néill in 2011 agus Focail Aniar Aduaidh in 2017. Bhí a dara cnuasach filíochta, Tine Ghealáin, a d’fhoilsigh Éabhlóid in 2019, ainmnithe do Ghradam Uí Shuilleabháin ag Oireachtas na Gaeilge 2020. D’fhoilsigh Éabhlóid a céad cnuasacht gearrscéalta, Go mbeinnse choíche saor, in 2016 agus tá saothair léi foilsithe in irisí ar nós Comhar, Duillí Éireann, Feasta, an tUltach agus Poetry Ireland Review.
Tá ceithre scéal dá cuid sa chnuasacht gearrscéalta Go dtí an lá bán a d’fhoilsigh Éabhlóid in 2012. Bronnadh duais Fhoras na Gaeilge ar Mháire in 2010 ag Féile Scríbhneoirí Lios Tuathail don ghearrscéal ‘Ag Téarnamh chun Baile’. Bhí scannán filíochta bunaigh ar dhán dá cuid ar an ghearrliosta ag Féile filíochta Winter Warmer Ó Bhéal 2020. I 2013 rinne Drama on One léiriúchán den scéal Thar an Tairseach. Bhí an léiriúchán sin ar an ghearrliosta don Dráma Raidió is Fearr ag an Prix Europa i mBeirlín in 2013.
Photo by Dena Florczyk
Piotr Florczyk, an award-winning poet, scholar, critic, and translator of Polish poetry, was born and raised in Kraków, Poland, and has lived in Southern California for nearly thirty years.
His most recent books include the poetry collections Kraków Testimonies (Arc Publications, 2021), which is based on the testimonies of Holocaust survivors, Dwa tysiące słów, and East & West, as well as numerous volumes of translations, including Invisible, the selected poems of Jacek Gutorow, and Building the Barricade by Anna Świrszczyńska, with a foreword by Eavan Boland, which won the 2017 Harold Morton Landon Translation Award from the Academy of American Poets. For more please visit www.piotrflorczyk.com
Greg Delanty’s latest collection of poems is No More Time (Louisiana State University Press, 2020), and a book of translations from Seán Ó Ríordáin titled Apathy Is Out (Bloodaxe books, 2021). He has received many awards, including The Patrick Kavanagh Award, The Austin Clarke Centenary Award and a Guggenheim for poetry.
In March of 2021 he was awarded The David Ferry and Ellen LaForge Poetry Prize for his body of work. He teaches at Saint Michael’s College, Vermont and he is a US citizen as well as an Irish citizen. Delanty’s papers up to 2010 have been acquired by the National Library of Ireland and from 2010-2015 at University College Cork.
9.00pm – 10.30pm
Isobel O’Hare | MK Chavez | Maurice Riordan
Isobel O’Hare is a poet, erasure artist, essayist, and memoirist-in-progress based in Virginia. They are the author of all this can be yours and editor of Erase the Patriarchy, both available from University of Hell Press. Isobel earned an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and they are a Helene Wurlitzer Foundation fellow. Their work has been featured in numerous journals and anthologies, as well as a recent book from MIT Press titled Annotation. Isobel is the founding editor of the magazine and small press Dream Pop. MK Chavez is an Afro-Latinx writer, educator, editor and coach. She is the author of Mothermorphosis, Dear Animal, and several chapbooks including, A Brief History of the Selfie. Chavez curates the reading series Lyrics & Dirges and is co-director of the Berkeley Poetry Festival. She is a recipient of the Alameda County Arts Leadership Award, the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award, and the 2021 San Francisco Foundation/Nomadic Press literary award.
She has received fellowships from Hedgebrook, Caldera, CantoMundo, Community of Writers, Sitka, and VONA. Her most recent work can be found in the Academy of Poets Poem-A-Day series and at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco with the Voice of Trees projects.
Photo by Pete Swann
Maurice Riordan’s most recent collection is Shoulder Tap (Faber, Oct 2021). Previous books include A Word from the Loki (1995), Floods (2000), The Holy Land (2007) and The Water Stealer (2013). He has edited The Finest Music, an anthology of early Irish lyrics in translation, and A Quark for Mister Mark: 101 Poems about Science.
He has received the Michael Hartnett Award, a Cholmondeley Award from the Society of Authors, and a PEN translation award. He is a former editor of The Poetry Review and is Emeritus Professor of Poetry at Sheffield Hallam University. Born in Lisgoold, Co. Cork, he lives in London, where he currently teaches at the Faber Academy.
12.00pm – 2.20pm
(Two Screenings: 12pm-1pm and 1.15pm-2.20pm)
Ó Bhéal’s 9th International Poetry-Film Competition
This year’s shortlist of 30 films was chosen from 184 submissions received from 122 filmmakers in 32 countries. The shortlist represents 13 countries: Canada, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Perú, Romania, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands, UK and the USA.
This year’s judges Paula Kehoe and Paul Casey, will select one winner to receive the Ó Bhéal award for best poetry-film, designed by glass artist Michael Ray.
You can view the complete shortlist via this link. These screenings will be viewed by a live audience at Nano Nagle Place, Cork & streamed via our website festival stage and Facebook & YouTube channels.
3.00pm – 4.30pm
Nurturing Poetries:
Organizing and the creation of Poetry Scenes in Port Cities
chaired by Cornelia Gräbner
and sponsored by
Poetry needs nurture. It needs a social context, spaces for learning, listening and response, and interaction with social environments. The poetry performance and the poetry recital in particular are credited with promoting the communitarian and social aspect of poetry, including a respectful and critical culture of listening and response. But who creates, runs, maintains, initiates, re-invents the events, the recitals, the slams, the festivals, the workshops, residencies, magazines, competitions, prizes and training opportunities for socially and culturally embedded poetries?
In this event, three poetry organisers from different port cities – Cork, Liverpool and A Coruña – speak about what it takes to create a nurturing environment and a ‘social infrastructure’ for poetry with a view to the medium and long term.
Dave Ward, is co-founder and co-ordinator of The Windows Project, running games-based writing workshops in community venues on Merseyside since 1976. He is the co-editor of SMOKE magazine. He has been published in over 100 anthologies and 200 magazines, including Abridged, The Manhatten Review and Eric Mottram’s Poetry Review. His collections are Jambo (Impact, 1993), Tracts (Headland, 1995) and On The Edge of Rain (Headland, 2009).
His books for children are Candy and Jazzz (Oxford University Press) and The Tree of Dreams (Collins). Writing as David Greygoose he has published Brunt Boggart (Pushkin) and Mandrake Petals and Scattered Feathers (Hawkwood). Dave has toured to Hong Kong and Harbin (northern China). He was a visiting Writer-in-Residence at Nanyang University, Singapore. He is an Honorary Fellow in Creative Writing, Liverpool Hope University.
The Windows Project is a unique writing organisiation, established in Liverpool in 1976 – running games-based writing workshops in play schemes, youth centres, libraries, secure units, prisons and for adults with learning difficulties. We mentor emerging writers in running workshops, run the regular Writing Advice Desk (currently online) and publish SMOKE magazine of new and established writers from all over the world. Our Small Press Library housed in Liverpool Central Library contains some 5,000 poetry magazines and pamphlets dating back to mid 1960s. We have working partnerships with University of Liverpool and Liverpool Hope University.
The most popular and international name in Galician Poetry, Yolanda Castaño is a poet, editor and a very active culture manager. Director of the Residencia Literaria 1863, in A Coruña (Spain), she has published six poetry collections in Galician and Spanish, besides books translated into English, French, Italian, Serbian, Macedonian and Armenian, and her poems have been translated into thirty-five languages.
Winner of the National Critics Award, the Ojo Crítico (best poetry book by a young author in Spain) and the Author of the Year by Galician Booksellers’ Association. She has been awarded International fellowships including the IWTCR in Rhodes, Villa Waldberta (Munich), the HIP-Beijing (China), Hawthornden Castle (Scotland) and Fundación Valparaíso (Andalusia).
Yolanda Castaño founded and directs her own poets’ residence, the Residencia Literaria 1863, in A Coruña, Galicia. She works with various institutions, ranging from local to international, to foster creative writing residencies or exchanges with similar residences abroad. Since 2009 she directs a regular poetry event, POETAS DI(N)VERSOS, the only program in all of Spain which hosts international poets with consistent regularity. The event takes place once a month, funded by the municipality of A Coruña. It has hosted poets such as Mark Strand, Adam Zagajewski, Adonis, Ana Blandiana, Joumana Haddad, Raúl Zurita, Sjón, Xi Chuan, Nuno Judice and Antonio Gamoneda.
Paul Casey is a poet, occasional filmmaker and facilitator of poetry. His poems have been published in journals and anthologies across Ireland and worldwide over the past two decades, most recently in Local Wonders (Dedalus Press), Days of Clear Light (Salmon Poetry), Live Encounters, Pratik and New Coin. His most recent collection is Virtual Tides (Salmon Poetry, 2016), which followed home more or less (Salmon, 2012) and a chapbook, It’s Not all Bad (Heaventree, 2009).
His poetry has been translated into Romanian, Chinese, French, German, Italian and Galician. He edited A Journey called Home (Cork City Libraries, 2018), an anthology of poems and stories from immigrant writers with translations in 20 languages. He has taught creative writing since 2003 and works with writers of all ages, via Poetry Ireland’s Writers in Schools scheme, in UCC’s ACE programme and since 2013 through the annual Unfinished Book of Poetry. He promotes poetry in his role as director of Ó Bhéal in Cork – www.obheal.ie
Ó Bhéal, Cork’s monthly poetry event features poetry films, a poetry writing challenge, featured guest poets and an open-mic. Between April 2007 and December 2019 Ó Bhéal was a weekly event and hosted fifty Monday night events per year. It has presented over 1,000 published, or otherwise accomplished poets from around Ireland and numerous countries on six continents. In 2020 Ó Bhéal’s regular event became a monthly fixture due to a shortage of funding. Many of these events have been held in conjunction with other city festivals, including the Cork Jazz Festival, Cork Harbour Festival, Cork Pride Festival, Cork Culture Night, Cork World Book Festival and First Fortnight festival. Ó Bhéal publishes a number of poetry publications each year and hosts the annual Winter Warmer festival and two international competitions, The Five Words Poetry Competition and the Ó Bhéal Poetry-Film Competition. Ó Bhéal also curates the annual Unfinished Book of Poetry project, an anthology which features work by secondary school students.
Cornelia Gräbner is lecturer in Hispanic Studies and Comparative Literature at Lancaster University, UK. She has published on performance poetry, on committed writing, and on 20th and 21st century resistance literature in Europe and in the Americas, especially Mexico. She has co-edited a collection of essays on performance poetry, special issues on the poetics of resistance and on poetry in public spaces, and is co-editor (with Joost de Bloois and Jim Hicks) of a forthcoming issue on Contrarian Speech, to be published by Critical Comparative Studies. She is a member of the research project Poetry and Politics II.
5.00pm – 6.30pm
Nurturing Poets:
Eight Poets from Port Cities – Liverpool, A Coruña and Cork
Bene Sebuyange | Lucía Aldao | Julie Goo
Natalie Linh Bolderston | George Harding
Eleanor Rees | Emma Pedreira | Molly Twomey
Bene Sebuyange is a Congolese-British spoken word artist, author, designer, performance coach and creative writing facilitator; she is a two-time consecutive winner of The Poetry Society Young Writers Award and a MOBO BeMOBO Award nominee.
From a young age she immersed herself in merging performance, storytelling, spoken word and poetry. She has been able to perform across the UK including the Royal Festival Hall as well as, supported line-ups of UK chart topping artists including Ed Sheeran, Akala, Sway, Lady Leshurr and Benjamin Zephaniah. She continues to inspire young people as a creative writing facilitator and has recently published a short children’s story commissioned by Tate Art Gallery Liverpool.
Lucía Aldao (A Coruña, 1982) has participated in poetry events since adolescence. The positive response to her work encouraged her to extend her activities, and she now combines literature with music and scriptwriting. In 2005 she joined forces with fellow poet María Lado, and to this day they run shows throughout the country, and beyond. They are aldaolado, an irreverent poetic duo which mixes poetry, comedy and music in an example of direct communication with the spectator.
Lucía’s first poetry collection, Todo isto antes era noite, was published by Apiario in 2018. Ninguén morreu de ler poesía (Xerais, 2020) was published under the authorship of aldaolado. The book contains some of the material they work with during their live performances.
Julie Goo is an established bilinugal Spoken Word poet from Cork City. She was crowned Munster Slam Champion in 2012, and won the Heart of Gort Slam in 2019. Goo has performed her socially conscious, politically driven work on numerous stages inlcuding: TedX Cork, Winter Warmer, Ó Bhéal, Body and Soul, Electric Picnic, Cork Midsummer Festival, Indiependence, Live at St. Lukes, as well as trips to the UK and Italy with funding from Cork City Council and Erasmus+. Julie Goo has numerous videos and poetry films on her YouTube Channel, and updated info on her Facebook Page.
Julie is a fluent Irish speaker and is widely published in the Irish Language under the name ‘Julie Field’. Coiscéim published her debut collection entitled DÁNA in April 2021, which was launched as part of Cork World Book Fest 2021. Julie is a fresh voice in Irish Language Poetry, and was runner up in Ireland’s Irish Language Slam Filíochta 2021. Her work in Irish reflects on Human Connections, Equality, Gender, and the Abstract with both fierceness and sensitivity.
Natalie Linh Bolderston is a Vietnamese-Chinese-British poet. In 2020, she received an Eric Gregory Award and co-won the Rebecca Swift Women Poets’ Prize. Her poem ‘Middle Name with Diacritics’ came third in the 2019 National Poetry Competition and was shortlisted for the 2021 Forward Prize for Best Single Poem. She is an alumna of the Roundhouse Poetry Collective and the London Library Emerging Writers Programme, and is currently on the inaugural VânThanh Productions Development Programme, which focuses on writing for the stage.
Her pamphlet, The Protection of Ghosts, is published with V. Press. She is now working on her first full-length collection.
George Harding is a poet from Cork. He has been published in numerous journals, in Ireland and internationally, and has appeared in various festivals around the country. His first collection, My Stolen City, was published by Revival Press in 2011 and his second, Last Bus to Pewterhole Cross, was published by the same body in 2015. He has now completed his third collection, which will draw on themes that have proven characteristic of his writing to date, namely the environment, ecology, ornithology, politics, and the human experience. He hopes it will see the light of day in 2022.
Eleanor Rees’s visionary poetry immerses you in another world from which you leave transformed. A hypnotic reader, her poems beguile you with sound patterns and vivid imagery. Folklore, myth and metamorphoses are recurrent themes. Her pamphlet collection Feeding Fire (Spout, 2001) received an Eric Gregory Award in 2002 and her first full length collection Andraste’s Hair (Salt, 2007) was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, UK and the Irish Glen Dimplex New Writers’ Award. Her second collection is Eliza and the Bear (Salt, 2009).
In 2015, Eleanor published a long pamphlet Riverine (Gatehouse, 2015) and a third collection Blood Child (Pavilion, 2015). Eleanor’s fourth collection of poetry The Well at Winter Solstice (Salt, 2019) received a Northern Writers’ Award 2018. Selections of Eleanor’s poems have been translated into French, German, Lithuanian, Slovak and Spanish (Versopolis, 2016, 2019). Eleanor’s fifth collection, Tam Lin of the Winter Park is forthcoming from Guillemot Press, 2022. Dr Eleanor Rees is senior lecturer in Creative Writing at Liverpool Hope University and lives in Liverpool, UK.
Emma Pedreira (A Coruña, 1978) is a Galician writer. She is the author of ten collections of poetry and the novels Besta do seu sangue (Blood Beast, translated by Kathleen March), which won the 2018 Xerais and Arzebispo San Clemente awards (galicianliterature.gal/emma-pedreira) and Bibliópatas e fobólogos, which won the 2017 Premio da Crítica Española en Lingua Galega (also translated by Kathleen March). Her first novel for young people, Os corpos invisibles, won the 2019 Jules Verne Award and the 2020 Gala do Libro Galego Prize.
A piece of her novel As fauces feroces (translated by K. March as Voracious) was published in Words without borders, the online magazine for the international literature. Her poetry books have received many awards, including the Jovellanos International Poetry Prize for ‘the best poem in the world’ in 2017 for her poem ‘The Widow’s Shopping List’. IRISH POEMS (AND NOTHING TO DECLARE) are her first poems translated to english, which can bebiewed online at: nuevayorkpoetryreview.com/Nueva-york-Poetry-Review-3183-92-poesia-espaola-emma-pedreira.
Molly Twomey holds an MA in Creative Writing from University College Cork where she received the title of College Scholar. She has been published in Poetry Ireland Review, Banshee, the Irish Times, Crannóg, Mslexia, The Stinging Fly, and elsewhere. In 2019, she won the Padraic Colum Poetry Prize.
In 2020, Ó Bhéal published her chapbook Spoken Worlds, Southern Syllables, co-authored by Jim Crickard. The same year, she won the Waterford Poetry Prize and was featured on RTÉ’s Arena. In 2021, she won the Eavan Boland Mentorship Award and was chosen for Poetry Ireland’s Introductions Series. Recently awarded an Arts Council Literature Bursary, she is working on her debut collection.
The Arts Council of Ireland, Cork City Council, Foras na Gaeilge,
Poetry and Politics II @ University of Vigo, Dunnes Stores, Forum
Publications, Colmcille, Arc Publications, Cork City Libraries, Poetry Ireland,
Paradiso, The Long Valley and the UCC School of English and Digital Humanities.
