Living in Galway since 1991 he has been working with Galway Youth Theatre as well as facilitating numerous drama and creative writing projects. He helped set up the original Galway Comedy Club and has been MC for the Cuirt International Festival of Literature poetry grand slam for the past seven years – and prior to that, Poet’s Platform. Several plays have been produced for the stage and by RTE and his poetry has been published widely in Ireland, the UK and elsewhere. Readings include Cuirt, Muscailt, Newcastle West, Newbridge, Clifden, Ballina and Saimhliocht Chairrai arts/literature festivals – and he has also played music venues, such as the Cobblestone in Dublin, Galway’s Roisin Dubh and the Amnesty Freedom Café.

Pete’s chapbook, Zen Traffic Lights appeared from Lapwing in 2005 and his debut full collection, A Father’s Day, published by Salmon in 2008, is already receiving excellent critical reviews. Launches have taken place in Galway, Limerick (Cuisle festival) and London. In 2008 he was chosen to read in Clare as part of Poetry Ireland’s anniversary commemorations. Also in 2008 he was invited by the Thomas Hardy Society to address the opening ceremony of their annual Conference in the UK. Readings for 2009 lined up so far, include the Oxfam Bookshop in London, Coole Park and the Cuirt festival.

‘Simple, luminous images – Mullineaux’s voice carries lilts of John Cooper-Clarke. There are poems here to make one smile, frown, think; the comedian often gives way to a serious poet indeed. A very fine book, then, and beautifully produced.‘ Fred Johnston – Western Writers Centre.

Áine’s poems have been featured in various publications and anthologies as well as being broadcast on radio and television. She is on the Writers in Schools panel and does workshops at primary and secondary school level as well as with adult groups. She was Writer in residence with County Kilkenny VEC in 2006, has won many awards for her poetry including the Irish language prize at Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown International Poetry Competition, Strokestown International Poetry Festival, was shortlisted for Brendan Kennelly Summerfest and was awarded the Michael Hartnett Poetry Prize and Duais Foras na Gaeilge at Listowel Writers’ Week. Áine has received bursaries from Ealaín na Gaeltachta and The Arts Council and was listed by The Irish Times in Jan ’09 as ‘one of the people to watch in the year ahead‘.

Nigel has written five collections of poetry: At The Waters’ Clearing (Flambard/Black Mountain Press, 2001), Songs For No Voices (Lagan Press, 2004), Blood (Bluechrome, 2005), Dissonances (Bluechrome, 2007) and Chora: New & Selected Poems (Templar, 2009). He also co-edited Breaking The Skin (Black Mountain Press, 2002), an anthology of new Irish poets. His poetry and translations from Irish and German have been published in literary journals and anthologies in Ireland, Britain, Europe, USA, Canada, Australia and Japan. He has read his work at many of the leading poetry venues and festivals in the UK and Ireland.

O’ Connor’s stage pageant Bréanainn was performed at Siamsa Tíre where he has also written for youth theatre and pantomime productions. His work for stage has also been performed in Listowel and Cork. He conducts Creative Writing Residencies in Schools, Libraries, Prisons and Colleges. He has had two terms as Writer in Residence for Co. Kerry, 2007 and 2008.

He is Clan File of the O’Connor Kerry Clan.

In 1978 he won a Kerry Sports Star award and followed that up in 1979 by winning a gold medal for Ireland in the Celtic Nations Championships in Edinburgh.

His poetry has been extensively published in magazines such as New Statesman, Poetry Review, Dream Catcher, Other Poetry, Aesthetica, Iron, Salzburg Poetry Review and Poetry Scotland, as well as in the collections The Jingling Geordie, Dreaming North, Pains of Class and Imagined Corners, on cassette, LP & CD, and on radio & TV. Keith has also written for music-theatre productions and has performed his poetry on several occasions at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and at Festivals in Aberdeen, Bradford, Cardiff, Cheltenham (twice at the Festival of Literature – with Liz Lochhead and with ‘Sounds North’), Durham, Newcastle upon Tyne, Greenwich, Lancaster, and throughout the land. In 2004-5, with the support of Arts Council England, North Tyneside Council and Northumberland Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, he worked with Berlin artist Rolf Wojciechowski on a text sculpture which involved readings on the beaches along the Northumbrian coast from Marsden to Cullercoats and from Druridge Bay to Berwick. In 2007 he collaborated on the touring play The Making of Saint Cuthbert for which he wrote and performed his poetry including shows in local churches. He appeared again at the Hexham Abbey Festival in 2008 and at the Durham Book Festival.

He has long pioneered cultural exchanges with Durham’s twinning partners, particularly Tuebingen and Nordenham in Germany and Ivry-sur-Seine and Amiens in France, as well as with Newcastle’s Dutch twin-city of Groningen, where he has frequently performed with poets like Rense Sinkgraven.

‘Keith is a noted Geordie wordsmith, a bloke whose musings were always radical, though of their place.’ (Folk Roots magazine).

‘Keith Armstrong’s poems are rooted in the Tyneside music-hall tradition, closely behind which was the august balladry of the Borders. Throughout the collection, the authentic lyrical note of this northern poet is struck.‘ (Michael Standen, Other Poetry).

Rense Sinkgraven (1965) grew up in the village of Smilde in the Netherlands. He made his debut with the volume Bombloesem (Bomb blossom; Uitg. kleine Uil, 2005). He was the city poet of Groningen, Newcastle’s twin city, from 2007 until January 2009 and has visited Newcastle twice to perform his poems.

Liz began writing about five years ago. She has had poetry, fiction and non-fiction work published widely in Ireland, the UK and the USA. Awards and prizes include selection for the 50 Best New Poets 2007 Anthology from Meridian Press in Virginia University where she was one of three cash prize winners. She had one of her poems chosen for inclusion in the Oxfam Ireland Poetry Calendar 2009. She was selected by Poetry Ireland to take part in its Introductions Readings in May 09 in recognition of her status as an emerging poet. She has just won first prize in The Listowel Writers’ Festival Single Poem competition. Her first collection, The Wrong Miracle, will be published by Salt Publishing in September.

Bernadette has previously worked as a social worker, tea lady, sociology lecturer, TEFL teacher, bank clerk and waitress. This chequered and eclectic career path has invaluably enriched her true vocation of poet and performer.

“Cremin has built a magic bridge between performance and the page; she has proven palpably and infectiously, how there needn’t be such a divide in the first place. Speechless is quite aptly titled, for that’s exactly how it leaves one: it proves that Cremin’s poetry is as tangible and affecting on the page as it is when uttered from her lips like subtle spells.” – Alan Morrison

“… a poet at once glamorous and sordid. She writes of call girls and ham actors, moody photos and bedsit divas. Bernadette in lines both precise and honest croons of violence and loss. Hers is the smoky voice of an underclass, forever tough feminine and vulnerable. If Tom Waits had a beautiful stepsister she would sound like Bernadette Cremin.” – John O’Donaghue (Waterloo Press)

Visit Bernadette’s website here.