Ó Bhéal in association with Foras na Gaeilge presents a bi-lingual evening with
Colette Nic Aodha
You can listen to Colette’s reading here.
Colette Nic Aodha was born in Co. Mayo in 1967, her poetry collections are Baill Seirce / Love Bites (Baile Átha Cliath, Coiscéim, 1998); Faoi Chrann Cnó Capaill / Under The Horse Chestnut (Coiscéim, 2000); and Gallúnach-Ar-Rópa / Soap-on-a-Rope (Coiscéim, 2003). Her short stories are collected as Ádh Mór / Good Luck (Coiscéim, 2004). Sundial, published by Arlen House in 2005 is her first collection of poetry in English. She edited an anthology of her students’ poetry, Pailéad an tSaoil / Palette of Life in 2006. Her collection Between Curses / Bainne Géar, a duel language collection was published by Arlen House October 2006.
Colette currently resides in Galway where she works in the university. A forthcoming collection from Coiscéim entitled Ainteafan received a 6,000 euro commission from Bord na Leabhar Gaeilge.
Harry Zevenbergen
You can listen to Harry’s reading here.
Harry Zevenbergen is the city poet of Den Haag. In his work, political satire, sharp observation, a heartfelt tear and hilaric absurdism are alternated. In the past ten years Harry has delivered about 800 performances, including over 100 performances in Belgium, England, Ireland and Scotland. His work has been published in several anthologies, magazines, newspapers and in 2004 his first major collection Punk in Rhenen was published. In September 2007 the Nepalese/Indian magazine Pratik published an anthology of contemporary Dutch poetry, edited by Harry, with the support of the Dutch Translation fund.
As a poet Harry works both solo, as a duo with fellow poet Diann van Faassen and also in the poetry pop-group D.O.M., a group that combines multi-vocal poetry performance with pop, folk and electromusic. In 2003 D.O.M. produced the Wintergarden (Nijmegen) City. City is the story of a big city, with a series of poems forming one story. On stage the performance is supported by a film. City was to be seen on several major festivals in the Netherlands. In April 2007 Harry was officially announced as the first official City poet of Den Haag.
Harry will be giving a workshop in The Hayloft at 6pm before his reading, and spaces are limited to ten. For more details please click here.
Tim Wells
You can listen to Tim’s reading here.
Dapper cockney chap Tim Wells was listed for the Forward Prize with his last collection Boys’ Night Out in the Afternoon (Donut Press). He has edited the poetry ‘zine Rising for the past 14 years, and has read at many a poetry reading, alongside comedians, supported bands and he has refereed Inter-Gender Wrestling.
Aoife Casby and Celest Augé
You can listen to Aoife’s reading here.
And you can listen to Celeste’s reading here.
Aoife Casby is originally from Mayo and now lives in Carraroe, Co. Galway where she works as a writer and visual artist. She has published in Poetry Ireland, Cyphers, Orbis, West47, Ropes, The Cork Literary Review, The Cúirt Annual, DIVAS 2 Anthology and others. A selection of her poetry was published (with writer Celeste Augé) by Lapwing in a chapbook Smoke & Skin in 2008.
Aoife was selected for Poetry Ireland’s Introductions Series in 2007 and has been shortlisted for the START Chapbook Poetry Award and the Cúirt New Writing Prize. She read in a showcase for emerging writers at Cúirt in 2007 and her work was selected for the Windows Writers & Artist Series 2007. Aoife has worked as Writer In Residence on a project with community groups in Connemara. She was the winner of the 2008 Edgeworth Poetry Prize and received a Literature Award from Galway Co. Council in 2008. Aoife was shortlisted for a Hennessy Literary Award for Poetry 2008 and for The Fish International Poetry Award 2008.
Celeste Augé was born in Canada and moved to Galway when she was twelve years old. Her poems have appeared in a wide variety of literary journals. She has read her work as part of Poetry Ireland’s ‘Introductions’ series, and also at the Cuirt Festival Over The Edge showcase. She was shortlisted for the 2005 Cuirt New Writing Prize. In 2006 she received a Publication Assistance Award from Galway County Council. She has completed an MA in Writing at NUI, Galway. Her first full collection of poetry is forthcoming from Salmon Poetry in 2009.
Dominic Taylor
Dominic Taylor is a native of Limerick. Along with Barney Sheehan he has been organising The White House Poetry Revival readings in Limerick for the past five years. His poetry has been published in various journals and he was invited to read his work at Pulse: Brighton International Poetry Festival in 2007 and Cuisle: Limerick City International Poetry Festival. He is the founding editor of Revival and a founding member of the newly established Limerick Writers’ Centre. He is also a songwriter.
Ó Bhéal in association with Foras na Gaeilge presents a bi-lingual evening with
Rónán Ó Snodaigh
You can listen to one of Rónán’s songs here.
Rónán Ó Snodaigh was born in Dublin in 1970. He is a prolific musician, writer and performer in both Irish and English. He has travelled throughout the world performing with many musicians including Zakir Hussein and Lisa Gerrard and with the bands Kíla and Dead Can Dance. A founding member of Kíla, Rónán is recognized as one of Ireland’s best and most innovative bodhran players and percussionists. Rónán has also been creating a stir as a singer songwriter in both English and Irish.
2003 saw Rónán’s first venture into writing with the long awaited publication of Luscadán, a stunning collection of Irish language poems and songs. This was followed the following year by his English book of song lyrics, Songs.
Rónán will be reading in Irish and English, and will also read from The Garden Wars, a new collection of poems published and launched in December 2007. Caught in the crossfire between bracken, bramble, gorse and garden escapees, these are Rónán’s eyewitness accounts of the ongoing seasonal skirmishes, love stories and undercover activities that take place daily in our landscape. This is a subject close to Rónán’s heart, as he spends a lot of time studying the sometimes subversive behaviour of certain species in his garden. The Garden Wars is Rónán’s first full volume of poetry.
For more information on Rónán please contact Sarah Glennane
sarah [at] kilarecords.com Tel: 086 4021179
www.myspace.com/ronanosnodaigh
www.kila.ie
Ó Bhéal in association with Poetry Ireland presents
Desmond O’Grady and John Liddy
You can listen to Desmond’s reading here.
And you can listen to John’s reading here.
[Biography compiled from Aosdána] Desmond O’Grady was born in Limerick in 1935 and he received his M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University. He has lived abroad in Paris, Rome, Cairo, Alexandria and now lives in Kinsale, Co. Cork. His collected poems, The Road Taken, was compiled from more than a dozen books from 1956 to 1996. He has published numerous translations, which include works from Welsh, Greek and Arabic. In 2001, on the 400th anniversary of the Battle of Kinsale, he completed a long poem commemorating the event, which was set to music by Pat Crowley and published in 2002.
His publications number twenty three collections of his own poems, including The Road Taken: Poems 1956-1996 and The Wandering Celt, and twelve collections of translated poetry, among them Trawling Traditions: Translations 1954-1994, Selected Poems of C.P. Cavafy, The Song of Songs and, in 2005, Kurdish Poems of Love and Liberty, in addition to prose memoirs of his literary acquaintances and friends. The publication of On My Way in 2006 marked the 50th anniversary of his first published collection, Chords and Orchestrations.
Desmond was the 2004 recipient of the Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship and is a member of Aosdána.
John Liddy was born in Youghal, Co. Cork but grew up in Limerick. He is the founding editor along with Jim Burke of The Stony Thursday Book (1975 -) and has edited bilingual issues with his brother Liam and Miguel Ortega. He is a teacher and librarian and lives in Madrid.
John’s publications are Boundaries (1974), The Angling Cot (1991), Song of the Empty Cage (1997), Wine and Hope (1999), Cast-A-Net (2003) and The Well: New and Selected Poems (2007). Forthcoming are La Barca de la Arena (a translation by Francisco Rivero in Spanish of The Angling Cot) and Poisonous Pleasure (a translation by John Liddy from Tosigo Ardento by José Maria Álvarez).
For me as a poet there are two questions I ask of any poem: Is it worth writing? If I haven’t written it would I like to have written it? For many poems in this current collection the answer is a resounding Yes. – Patrick Galvin
Matthew Sweeney
You can listen to Matthew’s reading here.
Born Co Donegal 1952, Matthew Sweeney returned to Ireland last year after living abroad for decades, most recently in Berlin. Among his many collections are included Black Moon (1997 – shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize and the Irish Times Poetry Now Award), Sanctuary (2004) and Selected Poems (2002), all published by Cape. This year Hodder will bring out a new edition of Writing Poetry, co-written with John Hartley Williams. Matthew has also written poetry and fiction for children. He was Writer in Residence for the Munster Literature Centre in late 2007, and is a member of Aosdana.
Niall Herriott
You can listen to Niall’s reading here.
Niall Herriott lives in West Cork. He’s a scientist who is struggling to make better use of the other half of his brain! Much of his writing in the past has been of an environmental slant and more recently he has been attempting to address the approaching global crisis and how we relate to it. Satire and black humour is his current form of expression. His latest book is A Magic Little Virus and other short stories published by Carraig Press.
Regarding poetry he feels he is still an apprentice despite numerous workshops endured and enjoyed at Munster Literature Centre. He has a selection of poems out – Beachcombers (both of these books are available in Vibes and Scribes and several other bookshops, also through lulu.com, including to download).
He has read at a number of venues including O Bheal, Triskel, Tigh Fili, Irish Writers Centre, Cuirt Poets Platform, Haarlem Literary Festival, Listowel Writers Week, Linen Hall Castlebar etc. and has had stories and poems published in various anthologies and journals. He is currently working on a novel.
