New Creative Writing from UCC
& special guest Pam Campbell
Each February, Ó Bhéal showcases poets and short fiction writers engaged in UCC’s MA Creative Writing programme, to hear them read their new work. This year’s event features James Carroll, John O’Boyle, Leah Sohotra, Lucie Pereira, Jessica Anne Rose, Andie McNamara and Angelia D’Souza.
James Carroll is a 22-year old cork native, currently studying the Creative Writing MA in UCC. He has previously published poems and articles in Motley, UCC’s Magazine. His favorite poet is Sylvia Plath, whom he takes great inspiration from. This event will be his first time reading his work in public.
John O’Boyle is a Cork-based writer currently enrolled in the MA in Creative Writing at UCC. His poetry explores the dialectic between personhood and mythos, the exigencies which arise from contradictions therein. He has been published by the Summit Avenue Review and University of Minnesota Women’s Center.
Leah Sohotra is a poet in UCC’s MACWE program. She published a short story in Ó Bhéal’s 2019 Cork Anthology A Journey Called Home, about the unassisted birth of her daughter. She’s also a songwriter whose singles have aired on RTÉ and BBC, receiving reviews from Hot Press and PROG magazine.
Lucie Pereira is a writer and educator from California. She has published poems in The Hellebore and Honey Literary, among others, and her debut chapbook, From Here to the Ocean, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press. She currently lives in Cobh while pursuing a master’s in creative writing at University College Cork.
Jessica Anne Rose was awarded a National Student Media Award as Feature Writer of the Year: Pop Culture & Arts 2022. She is a contributing journalist for Hot Press Magazine. She was recently awarded the Miriam Cotter Award, a full scholarship for an exciting and emerging writer who was accepted into University College Cork’s MA in Creative Writing. Jessica’s published poetry is included in Green Carnations Anthology, Drawn to The Light Press’ Issue 5, Cork Pride Magazine 2024, and Hide and Seek Anthology.
Andie McNamara’s writing has appeared in the Echo, the Hollybough, and Cork Words 3, as well as online in Sledgehammer Lit Magazine and the Mark Burns Radio Show. She self–published her first collection of poetry, Generously Curved in 2023 and is currently doing an M.A. in Creative Writing in U.C.C.
Angelia D’Souza is from Dublin, California and is currently a MA Creative Writing student at UCC. She is a recent graduate of Creighton University, with a BA in Cultural Anthropology and English. Her poetry and fiction have been published in Volume 13 of Mary Baldwin University’s Outrageous Fortune Literary Magazine.
Pam Campbell is a daughter of the Appalachian Mountains, born in Alabama and raised in Eastern Kentucky and Virginia. She favors the song-like qualities of poetic form and how it serves to contain human suffering and joy.
Her poems have appeared in Ó Bhéal Five Words Anthologies, Volumes XIV-XVII, Blue Mondays Poetry Anthology 2021, PMS&G Literary Journal, Volume 25-27, & The Petigru Review, Fall 2024 & her prose in PMS&G Literary Journal, Volume 24, & in To Life, Holocaust Stories of Hampton Roads Survivors, Liberators, and Rescuers. She is the 2024 Tennessee Mountain Writers first place winner in children’s literature.
This event will be both in-person, hosted in the Hayloft bar, upstairs in Long Valley, Winthrop St Cork, as well as on Zoom (which is limited to 100 people). Participation in the open-mic session and five word challenge is open to both in-person and virtual attendees. The session will be live-streamed at obheal.ie/live and via Ó Bhéal’s Vimeo, Facebook and YouTube channels. Note to Participants: Our hybrid events are recorded and remain viewable on video via these same channels.
We are no longer posting the zoom link via our social media channels. Upon written request to info@obheal.ie with a sentence outlining your reason for participation, a link to join the session will be emailed to you on the evening of the event, which is expected to run for between 2-3 hours.
7-7.45pm: Poetry-Films (random play from Ó Bhéal’s Poetry-Film comp archives – NOT STREAMED);
8.30pm: Five Word Challenge (max 30 – after the allotted 15 minutes writing time);
9.30pm: Featured Guest Poets from UCC (will read for up to 6 minutes each);
10:20pm: Pam Campbell (10 minutes) – followed by the Open-Mic Session for original poetry (max 30).
(Entering a Zoom meeting is all explained here >>>. This link provides you with a step-by-step guide and YouTube tutorial if necessary. You should check this out if you’re unfamiliar with the Zoom platform – it also shows you where to download the zoom client/app for your computer/phone. Please Make sure to know where the chat box is and how to mute yourself to reduce background sound.)
Emily Davis Fletcher and James Harpur
(via Zoom) (in-person)
Emily Davis Fletcher earned her BFA in creative writing from Stephens College, her MA in women’s studies from the National University of Ireland Galway, and her MFA in creative writing from Hollins University. Her poetry has been published in Tinderbox, Crannóg Magazine, the Irish Examiner, and The High Window, among other journals and anthologies. She has taught creativity and poetry workshops at elementary schools, assisted living communities, domestic violence shelters as well as at the University of South Carolina Beaufort, the Pat Conroy Literary Center, and Stephens College.
Most recently, she was a finalist for the Brett Elizabeth Jenkins Poetry Prize, the 2024 Breakout Prize and the Letter Review Prize in Poetry. Way, way back in 2009, Emily found Ó Bhéal when she did not know how to become a poet. The answer turned out to be a simple practice: every Monday night, ascend the Hayloft’s chatty stairs to sit (or stand) among a family of poets and be filled with poetry until she couldn’t hear her fear as loudly and she began saying yes to opportunities, starting with the chance to flex her voice on the open mic. In this way, countless poets have emerged through Ó Bhéal. Thank you, Paul, Rosie, and my poetry family at Ó Bhéal.
Photo by Dino Ignani
James Harpur has published nine books of poetry, including his latest, The Gospel of Gargoyle (Eblana Press, 2024), a poetic drama set on the roof of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris and featuring the figures of a Poet and an animate Gargoyle, who knows the secret of who or what started the fire of Notre-Dame.
He has won various awards and prizes, including the UK National Poetry Competition, the Michael Hartnett Prize, and the Vincent Buckley Award. His debut novel, The Pathless Country (Cinnamon, 2021), set in Galway, Limerick and London in the years leading to the 1916 Rising, won the J.G. Farrell Prize and was shortlisted for the John McGahern Prize. He is a member of Aosdána and lives in West Cork.
This event will be both in-person, hosted in the Hayloft bar, upstairs in Long Valley, Winthrop St Cork, as well as on Zoom (which is limited to 100 people). Participation in the open-mic session and five word challenge is open to both in-person and virtual attendees. The session will be live-streamed at obheal.ie/live and via Ó Bhéal’s Vimeo, Facebook and YouTube channels. Note to Participants: Our hybrid events are recorded and remain viewable on video via these same channels.
We are no longer posting the zoom link via our social media channels. Upon written request to info@obheal.ie with a sentence outlining your reason for participation, a link to join the session will be emailed to you on the evening of the event, which is expected to run for between 2-3 hours.
7-7.45pm: Poetry-Films (random play from Ó Bhéal’s Poetry-Film comp archives – NOT STREAMED);
8.30pm: Five Word Challenge (max 30 – after the allotted 15 minutes writing time);
9.30pm: Featured Guest Poets (20 minutes each);
10:20pm: Open-Mic Session for original poetry (max 30).
(Entering a Zoom meeting is all explained here >>>. This link provides you with a step-by-step guide and YouTube tutorial if necessary. You should check this out if you’re unfamiliar with the Zoom platform – it also shows you where to download the zoom client/app for your computer/phone. Please Make sure to know where the chat box is and how to mute yourself to reduce background sound.)
