Ó Bhéal‘s End of Year Event presents
Conor McManus (in-person) and Leontia Flynn (online)
Conor Mc Manus is a writer of short stories, memoir and poetry. He has had work published in Southword, The Moth, Crannóg, The Stinging Fly and Force Ten. He has read on RTÉ radio, and in the U.K. as part of an artist exchange programme. Has had his story; ‘Tea Break’ read by a troupe of actors in public performance at the Glens Centre Manorhamilton.
McManus has been short listed for the Fish short story competition on two occasions and won a bursary to the Tyrone Guthrie Centre. He published a chapbook Boy (Three Spires Press) in 2020 with a bursary from Roscommon County Council and his debut collection of short stories, Drumshanbo was published by Iron Mountain Press in 2021.
Leontia Flynn has published four collections of poetry with Jonathan Cape, most recently The Radio (2017), which was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize and won the Irish Times Poetry Prize. She has also received the Forward prize for best First Collection, the Rooney Prize for Irish literature and the AWB Vincent American Ireland Fund Literary Award.
The Lifeboat Press published her pamphlet of Catullus translations, Slim New Book, in 2020 and Mariscat her pamphlet Nina Simone is Singing in 2021. She lives in Belfast and is Reader at the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s University.
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.
*NB Our 3rd Hybrid event in December will be limited to 30 in-person attendees, in line with HSE guidelines. These spaces will be offered on a 1st come 1st serve basis, by request to info@obheal.ie.
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.
7.30pm: 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 (Conor will read for 15 minutes. Leontia will read for 30 minutes);
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.)
Ó Bhéal in association with First Fortnight presents
Mark Granier and Massimo Elijah
Mark Granier‘s poems have been broadcast on RTÉ and appeared in numerous outlets, including The New Statesman, Poetry Ireland Review and Carol Ann Duffy’s online pandemic project/website, ‘Write Where We Are Now.’ His fifth collection, Ghostlight: New & Selected Poems, was published by Salmon in 2017. He lives in Bray, Co Wicklow. Portrait by Meta Zhuraw
Massimo Elijah is a spoken word poet born and raised in Philadelphia. He loves how the arts can give people freedom of expression as well as a common ground for coming together…where artist and audience remind each other how human beings are healers also healed by healing others.
“Thank you for your welcome and support. And I also wanted to add that part of First Fortnight’s mission resonates with me and my life, so I will be sharing poetry relevant to the theme of mental illness awareness.”
This event will be hosted on Zoom and limited to 100 people. We will live-stream the session at obheal.ie/live and via Ó Bhéal’s Vimeo, Facebook and YouTube channels. Note to Participants: Our online 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. The session is expected to run for between 2-3 hours.
8.30pm: Five Word Challenge (max 30 – after the allotted 15 minutes writing time);
9.30pm: Featured Guest Poets (20 mins 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.)
