Ó Bhéal in association with Colmcille and Foras na Gaeilge presents
Gerda Stevenson and Aonghas MacNeacail
We have eight videos of Aonghas and Gerda on our Youtube Channel.
You can listen to Gerda’s reading here.
Gerda Stevenson, writer/actor/director/singer/songwriter, has worked on stage, television, radio, film, and opera, throughout Britain and abroad. She has read her poetry at many international festivals, including Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Trinidad, and Italy. She has received Scottish Arts Council and Creative Scotland writers’ bursaries, and her writing is studied on the Contemporary Scottish Literature course at the University of Glasgow. Her poetry collection If This Were Real (pub. Smokestack Books, 2013), will be published in Italian by Edizioni Ensemble in Rome, October, 2017. Her stage play Federer Versus Murray (pub. Salmagundi, USA) toured to New York in 2012, part of the Scottish Government’s NYC Scotland Week celebrations. She is a familiar voice on the airwaves – notably as Steve in The Paul Temple Mysteries, and has written many plays for BBC Radio 4. She won a Scottish BAFTA Best Film Actress award, was nominated by the international Committee of New York’s League of Professional Theatre Women for the Gilder/Coigney International Award, and has been nominated three times for the Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland.
In 2014 she was nominated Scots Singer of the Year for the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards, following the launch of her acclaimed album of her own songs Night Touches Day. Her second poetry collection, about Scottish women, BC – 21st century, will be published by Luath Press in March, 2018. For more about Gerda, visit www.gerdastevenson.co.uk.
Aonghas MacNeacail is one of Scotland’s leading poets. He is also a journalist, broadcaster, scriptwriter, librettist, translator, and songwriter. A native Gael from Skye, he writes in Gaelic and English. His collections of poetry have been published in both languages, and his writing has appeared in literary journals all over the world. He broadcasts regularly on radio and TV. He has given poetry readings at major literary festivals across the globe – in Russia, Japan, Poland, Israel, the U.S.A., Canada, and throughout Western Europe. His work has been published in many languages, including German, Italian, Irish Gaelic, French, Hebrew, Finnish and Serbo-Croat. He won the prestigious Scottish Writer of the Year Stakis Prize with his third collection, Oideachadh Ceart (‘A Proper Schooling and other poems’). He has received three Scottish Arts Council Writers’ Bursaries, and was awarded a Society of Authors Travelling Scholarship, in 2003. As an established lyricist and librettist, Aonghas has collaborated, in both folk and classical idioms, with many of Scotland’s top composers, including Phil Cunningham, Donald Shaw, William Sweeney and Ronald Stevenson. His most recent collection is Laoidh an Donais òig (‘hymn to a young demon’) (Polygon, 2007).
Phil Lynch
You can listen to Phil’s reading here.
Photo By Punk Groves
Phil Lynch currently lives in Dublin and has also lived in Belgium. Publications in which his poems have appeared include: Even The Daybreak (35 years of Salmon Poetry), Revival, Bare Hands Poetry, Boyne Berries Series, The Poetry Bus, Headstuff, OFi Press Literary Magazine (Mexico), Wordlegs, The Runt, Census, Circle Time, Bray Arts Journal, Flare and Live Encounters Poetry. He has also been featured on the Arena Arts Show and the Poetry Programme on RTE Radio as well as on a number of local radio programmes.
In 2015, he was placed third in the Doolin Writers’ Weekend Poetry Competition, shortlisted in the Red Line Poetry Competition and longlisted in the Dermot Healy International Poetry Competition. In 2014 he was a runner up in the iYeats Poetry Competition and longlisted in the Over The Edge New Writer of the Year Competition. He is a regular reader/performer at poetry and spoken word events and festivals in Ireland, including Electric Picnic, Dublin Book Festival and St. Patrick’s Festival. He has also read at events in the USA, UK, Belgium and France. Phil was a co-founder of Lingo, Ireland’s first spoken word festival. His first full collection, In a Changing Light, was published by Salmon Poetry in 2016.
Ó Bhéal in association with The Heritage Council presents
Nature in Irish History & Culture, with
Lani O’Hanlon and Grace Wells
We have six videos of Lani and Grace on our Youtube Channel.
You can listen to Lani’s reading here.
Lani O’Hanlon is a poet, dancer and movement artist working with dance-film, music and spoken word. The author of Dancing the Rainbow (Mercier Press 2007), she has an MA in creative writing from Lancaster University. Her work has been published very widely and has been shortlisted for the FISH prize. She has received numerous bursaries and awards, her recently published poetry chapbook, The Little Theatre (Artlinks, 2017) was funded by Co. Waterford Arts Office and she is completing a first novella. Lani has worked as an Arts Facilitator/Director Internationally and on the Skyros Programme, as a Creative Writing Facilitator with Waterford City and County Arts Office, Waterford Healing Arts Trust and is writer in residence for the annual Molly Keane Writers’ Retreat in Ardmore.
O’Hanlon’s ‘Going to the well’ can be read as a reversal of Heaney’s well known poem ‘A drink of water’ (…) where the water of the well is plentiful and the reader is asked ‘Remember the Giver’. Clear fresh language here avoids polemic, and the poem has a controlled pressure of feeling in it. – Penelope Shuttle
Grace Wells is one of the most ecologically-driven writers living in Ireland today. Both her poetry and her children’s books are strongly informed by nature, the environment, and spirit of place. Her debut poetry collection, When God Has Been Called Away to Greater Things (Dedalus Press, 2010), won the Rupert and Eithne Strong Award and was shortlisted for the London Festival Fringe New Poetry Award. Her second collection Fur (Dedalus Press, 2015) expanded the boundaries of eco-poetics, and was lauded by Poetry Ireland Review as ‘a book that enlarges the possibilities of poetry’. She will be reading new work inspired by the place of nature in 19th century Ireland, and the parallels that era offers to our present ecological crisis.
“A poet of depth and elegance, of sparkling intuition and studied formality, Grace Wells is one of the twelve apostles at the feast of poetry. Her work will endure for its beautiful seriousness, its style, its sense of purpose.” – Thomas McCarthy
Deirdre Grimes and John Carew
You can listen to Deirdre’s reading here.
Deirdre Grimes is a graduate of Limerick school of art and design. Her work includes poetry and painting and some sculpture. Her poetry has been published nationally and internationally in many journals including Crannog, The Creel, Electric Acorn and Haiku Harvest. Her first collection The Chaos Within came out in March 2016, from Revival Press.
‘IT’S ALL about chaos – the chaos within each of us and the chaos that lurks out there. But these poems, drenched in sensuality, honesty and hope, put a measure of order on that chaos, and separate the light from the darkness of the void. A suckling babe, a moist wife, the smell of church candles, a sleeping child, the unheard scream inside the head, the joys and the angst of parenthood – all these jostle together in thirty utterly astonishing poems that gaze out to sea and echo the winds that tell us to “stay ashore”‘. – David Rice
John Carew is a poet and story teller. He lives between Knockainey and Lough Gur, County Limerick and has always been fascinated by Old Ireland. Many of his works are performed from memory in the seanchaí style at literary gatherings in Limerick and further afield. He is fascinated by Lough Gur, World War 1 and the lives of people who grew up in the old country scene of County Limerick, limited in wealth, but rich in experiences and relationships. John’s poetry has been published in Revival Literary Journal, Poetic Humour, the Lough Gur and District Historical Society Journal, Knockainey Journal and Anthology No 12. His début poetry collection is Through The Mist Of Time (Revival Press, 2015).
John was a finalist in the short script section of the 2016 Waterford film festival. He was seanchaí for the 2017 Kanturk art festival and was one of the featured poets for April is Poetry Month. He won 2nd place in the Gab storytelling competition, 1st place in the 2017 Limerick Fleadh Gheoil senior competition and will represent Limerick in the Munster finals. John is a regular contributor at the White House Bar poetry nights, On the Nail Literary Gatherings, and at the Rambling House in the Honey Fitz Theatre. In 2014 he presented a radio show called Between the Pages on the local Limerick City Community Radio in which he would interview local writers and artists. John is also a member of the Short Story and Novel Writers’ Group run by The Limerick Writers’ Centre.
Ó Bhéal in association with Foras na Gaeilge presents
Ailbhe Ní Ghearbhuigh
You can listen to Ailbhe’s reading here.
Ailbhe Ní Ghearbhuigh was born in Kerry and writes in the Irish language. She has read at festivals in New York, Paris, Montréal, Berlin and Ballyferriter. In 2012 her poem Deireadh na Feide won the O’Neill Poetry Prize. Filleadh ar an gCathair was chosen as Ireland’s EU Presidency poem in 2013 and was shortlisted in 2015 for RTE’s ‘A Poem for Ireland’. Coiscéim published her first book Péacadh (2008) and Tost agus Allagar (2016). A bilingual collection, The Coast Road, has just been published by The Gallery Press, with English translations by thirteen poets.
Ciarraíoch í Ailbhe Ní Ghearbhuigh. Tá a cuid filíochta léite aici i bPáras, i Nua Eabhrac, i Montréal agus ar an mBuailtín. Bhuaigh a dán Deireadh na Feide Corn Uí Néill i 2012 agus roghnaíodh Filleadh ar an gCathair mar Dhán Uachtarántacht an Aontais Eorpaigh i 2013. Bhain an dán céanna áit amach ar ghearrliosta RTÉ, ‘A Poem for Ireland’. D’fhoilsigh Coiscéim a céad chnuasach filíochta, Péacadh, i 2008 agus Tost agus Allagar i 2016. The Coast Road an teideal atá ar chnuasach dátheangach atá díreach foilsithe ag an Gallery Press mar a bhfuil aistriúcháin le filí aitheanta an Bhéarla.
Jane Williams
You can listen to Jane’s reading here.
Jane Williams is an award-winning Australian writer based in Tasmania. Her most recent book is Days Like These – new and selected poems. Her sixth collection of poems Parts of the Main is forthcoming. While best known for her poetry, Jane Williams writes in a variety of forms and genres for both adults and children, combining photography with poetry and collaborating with other artists. She has been a featured reader at venues in several countries including the USA, Ireland, Malaysia, Czech Republic and Slovakia where she held a three month artist residency in 2016. She coedits the online literary and arts journal Communion with her partner Ralph Wessman.
Roger Hudson
You can listen to Roger’s reading here.
A performance and page poet, Roger Hudson has appeared at the Glor Sessions, Tongue Box, Wurm im Apfel, Monday Echo, Sunflower Sessions, Ó Bhéal, The White House as well as at LINGO 1 and 3, Aspects and other festivals. He came to poetry only fourteen years ago and has published three collections since then: Lifescapes – half of Side-Angles (Pagan Publications 2005) with Steve Downes, Greybell Wood & Beyond (Lapwing Publications, 2010) and Plaything of the Great God Kafka (Lapwing, 2013). Roger has also hosted events, including the The Word spoken word session of the Drogheda Arts Festival and has organized others, as well as experimenting with dramatization and with combining poetry with music by ambiencellist Claire Fitch and guitarist Breifne Holohan – his CD with Breifne San Francisco Dreaming was launched in 2016. He is a novelist, artist and filmmaker.
Ó Bhéal in association with Cork City Council presents
a special Friday edition of Ó Bhéal for
Cork Culture Night 2017
Benjamin Burns
Benjamin Burns is a poet and musician from County Sligo living in Cork City. He has performed at numerous festivals and events, including at Electric Picnic, Cork Midsummer Festival, Quarter Park Party, and Spotlight Poetry. His influences include Daoist philosopher Zhuangzi, Syd Barrett, Tove Jansson, and Fernando Pessoa. He recently finished studying for an H. Dip in Early Years Montessori Education. He was runner up in the Munster Poetry Slam 2016, and joint-winner of the All Ireland Poetry Slam 2016.
Paul McNamara is a performance poet, playwright and PhD student from Limerick. Paul is a two time (and current) All Ireland Spoken Word runner-up. He is the current Munster Spoken Word Champion and current and inaugural Yeats’ Tower Slam Champion, the first ever slam sponsored by Poetry Ireland. He is a former winner of Limerick’s Got Talent. His first play Searching For Rusty was performed in Limerick in 2016 and he has completed a one year play-writing course with Olivier Award winning company Fishamble. His work has been featured on RTE Radio 1 and Irish TV, at festivals such as Indiependence, and has been published in Sextet, Solstice Sounds and The Stony Thursday.
Roisin Kelly was born in Belfast, raised in Leitrim, and currently lives in Cork City. Her first chapbook of poetry, Rapture, was published by Southword Editions in 2016. She won the Fish Poetry Prize 2017 and is currently assistant editor of the Irish literary journal The Penny Dreadful.
Colm Scully, from Cork, published his first poetry collection What News, Centurions? (New Binary Press) in 2014. He is a former winner of Cúirt New Writing Prize and has previously been selected for Poetry Ireland Introductory Series. He collaborates on Poetry Films, some of which have been shortlisted for festival competitions in Ireland and America. One of his films is due for publication on multimedia arts site Atticus Review. His poems have been included in recent anthologies On the Banks and The Deep Hearts Core.
Poet, Artist and Singer-Songwriter Margaret Creedon O’Shea joined Ó Bhéal in 2013 and commenced masterclasses at The Munster Literature Centre. She won the Cork Cuture night poetry competition in 2016. At the Féile Bheag Fhilíochta festival she was runner up in the English Improv section, and is five-time winner of the Five Word Challenge. Cork City and County Libraries commissioned the design a of a bookmark, poem and song to commemorate Frank O’ Connor in 2016. Margaret was a featured artist for Cork Culture Night 2016, the Daniel Corkery Summerschool 2016, Kinsale Arts week 2017 and Shannonside 2017. She participated in Damh Scoil Baile Bhuirne for TnG and the Cork Feminista conference in 2015. She was a finalist in the 2016 Munster Slam and is published in the Irish Medical Times, Ó Bhéal Five Words Anthologies (2014-2017), Stanzas (2016) and the Evening Echo. She has illustrated eight publications and presented five art exhibitions, including at Bishopstown library in September 2016 which included a mixed media performance.
Rab Urquhart has lived in Cork since 2000. Poet, playwright, songwriter and artistic director are just some of the labels he labours under. Rab also works in set design and construction with, amongst others: Corcadorca, RTE, Irish Film Board, and Cork Opera House. Rab can often be found playing with Shandon ukulele club of which he is a founding member, He can also often be found playing with his freak-folk band The 5th Floor in venues around the city and county. A board member of Ó Bhéal since 2010 and, arguably, the most prolific winner of the five word challenge, Rab likes living in Cork because it’s Always warmer than Edinburgh. In 2013 his chapbook (with Julie Field) spoken worlds – lost in print, was published by Ó Bhéal Press.
Siobhán Campbell
You can listen to Siobhán’s reading here.
Siobhán Campbell’s latest book is Heat Signature (Seren Press, 2017) which follows Cross Talk (Seren, 2009), the cold that burns (Blackstaff Press, 2000) and The Permanent Wave (Blackstaff Press, 1996). Her poems are called ‘unsparingly strong … fine and ferocious’ by PN Review. Siobhan is anthologised in Identity Parade: New British and Irish Poets (Bloodaxe), in Womens’ Work: Twentieth Century Writing (Seren) and in the Field Day Anthology of Irish Literature (NYU Press). She holds awards in the National and Troubadour International competitions and was awarded the Oxford Brookes International Poetry Award in 2016. Siobhan’s work has appeared in Magma, The Southern Review, The Hopkins Review, Poetry Ireland, Cyphers and Poetry. She teaches literature and writing as Chair of the MA in Creative Writing at The Open University.
