Announcing Introductions & Céadlínte 2024
Poetry Ireland is delighted to announce the poets selected to participate in Introductions and Céadlínte 2024 chosen from over two hundred applicants. The poets who will take part in Introductions are Kevin O’Farrell, Niamh Twomey, Ben Keatinge, Aine Rose Connell , Maciej Baltruszewicz, Cliodhna Bhreatnach , Shakeema Edwards, Mia Vance, Charlotte Buckley and Fionn Andrews.
These emerging poets were selected by poet Stephen Sexton, and they will take part in a workshop on form and craft with Stephen, a workshop on a performance with Jessica Traynor and a workshop on maintaining your day-to-day practice as a poet with Annemarie Ní Churreáin.
Introductions also includes a dedicated Irish-language strand entitled Céadlínte. The six poets selected to take part in this prestigious series are Cáit Pléimionn, Joanne Nic Cárthaigh, Éire Ní Fhaoláin, Áine Nic an tSíthigh, Máire Ní Laoire agus Sorcha de Brún. These emerging poets were selected by Aifric Mac Aodha and they will take part in a workshop entitled 'Déanamh an Dáin’ with Aifric, a workshop on performance with Ciara Ní É and a workshop on maintaining your day-to-day practice as a poet with Annemarie Ní Churreáin
Introductions | Céadlínte will culminate in two nights of performances as part of Dublin Book Festival in November. The series will also be accompanied by a new e-book anthology of the poets work. We’re delighted to welcome this new series of poets and hope that Introductions will provide them with many new creative opportunities as they launch their promising writing careers.
Introductions 2024
Áine Rose Connell is a poet and artist from Donegal with a background in clinical speech and language therapy. She has received bursaries from the Arts Council, artsandhealth.ie
and Creative Ireland for her socially engaged practice, which combines literary craft with participatory art, often collaborating with individuals experiencing illness in healthcare contexts. Áines work, listed in international writing competitions, has appeared in Trasna, Drawn to the Light Press, and elsewhere. She is currently finalising her debut pamphlet.
Ben Keatinge is a writer from Dublin. He won the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award in 2022 for his manuscript, The Wireless Station, and received a Dedalus Press Poetry Mentorship in 2021. His poems have featured in The Irish Times, The Irish Independent, Reading Ireland and in anthologies, including: Romance Options (2022), Local Wonders (2021), Hold Open the Door (2020) and Writing Home (2019). From 2007-16, he worked as a university lecturer in English in North Macedonia while also studying Macedonian and travelling extensively in the Balkans. His poetry thus takes much of its inspiration from the history and culture of south-east Europe.
Charlotte Buckley’s poetry has appeared in Banshee, Poetry Ireland Review, The Rialto, The Stinging Fly, and elsewhere. She was a finalist in Munster Literature Centre’s International Chapbook Competition and the Aryamati Poetry Prize for Peace and Social Change in 2023. She was selected for the Irish Writers Centre's National Mentoring Programme and received an Arts Council of Ireland Agility Award in 2022. Her work can be found in anthologies such as Romance Options (Dedalus Press, 2022) and Slow Things (The Emma Press, 2015).
Clíodhna Bhreatnach is from Waterford and lives in Dublin. Her poetry has appeared in The Stinging Fly, And Other Poems, Banshee, The Forward Book of Poetry 2023, and Propel: An Anthology of New Poetry, amongst others. She was highly commended for the Forward Prize in 2022 and is the recipient of two Agility Awards. She is the poetry editor of Frustrated Writers Group and contributing poetry editor for Mirror Lamp Press. Her debut poetry pamphlet will be published in 2025.
Fionn Andrews is a writer from Dublin, Ireland. He is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin’s M. Phil. in Creative Writing programme. Most recently, his poems have appeared in Icarus, Drawn to the Light Press, The Madrigal and The Waxed Lemon.
Kevin O’Farrell is a poet and artist from Dublin. His poems have appeared in The London Magazine, Poetry Ireland Review, Wild Court, Stand, Southword, Subtropics, The Dark Horse, Poetry Birmingham, Cyphers and New England Review.
Maciej Baltruszewicz is a poet, writer, and academic. He graduated in 2022 from the University of Galway, where he is currently completing a Master of Arts in English. He is the author of Mermaid Interiors, a limited-edition micro-pamphlet published in 2024 with Cabbagerose Press. His poems have also appeared in La Piccioletta Barca, Stone of Madness, and The Basilisk Tree. He recently performed his poetry at the Cúirt International Festival of Literature, and for the Lime Square Poets 2024 series. He is at work on a first full- length collection of poetry.
Mia Vance lives in Galway, where she earned her MA in Writing at the University of Galway. Since then, she’s been an active member of the spoken word and poetry open mic community in Galway, performing her work at the Over the Edge Open Mic, The Living Poetic, the Oil Slick Open Mic, Poetic Pints, the Infamous Open Mic, Vox Galvia, and the 2024 Cúirt International Festival of Literature New Writing Showcase. Her work has won the Oregon Poetry Association Poetry Prize and the Kidd Creative Writing Prize for Poetry, and has appeared in the Unbound Journal, Skylight 47, Aimsir Press Magazine, The 2022 Verseweavers Anthology.
Niamh Twomey is a poet from Co. Clare. Her work won the 2023 Desmond O’Grady International Poetry Competition and the 2022 Trim Poetry Competition. She has been published in journals and anthologies such as The London Magazine, Rattle, Southword, Banshee, Crannóg and others. She holds an MA in Creative Writing and is currently a PhD
candidate at Queen's University Belfast.
Shakeema Edwards is an Antiguan American writer living in Belfast. She has received an Ireland Chair of Poetry Student Award and was shortlisted for the 2023 Manchester Poetry Prize. Her work has appeared in Magma, Poetry Ireland Review, New Isles Press, Channel, Propel Magazine, and The Apiary. Her first pamphlet is forthcoming with Green Bottle Press in 2025.
Céadlínte 2024
Aine Nic an tSíthigh - Rugadh agus tógadh mé i mBaile Eaglaise, Baile ‘n Fhirtéaraigh, Co Chiarraí. Tá cónaí orm anois i mBaile Móir, Ceann Trá. Chaitheas blianta fada ag múineadh i mBÁC agus bhíos mar phríomhoide ar Ghaelscoil Lios na nÓg, Ranallach, ó bunaíodh an scoil i 1996 go 2019. Táim ag foghlaim Spáinnise le blianta beaga anuas. Thugas faoi cheardlann scríbhneoireachta sa Díseart sa Daingean le Ceaití Ní Bheildiúin i rith na bliana 2024. Tá ana-spéis agam freisin sa ghriangrafadóireacht.
Cáit Pléimionn - Rugadh agus tógadh Cáit i gCorcaigh. Is iníon léinn dochtúireachta í atá ag tabhairt faoi PhD i Roinn na Nua-Ghaeilge, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Corcaigh. Tar éis di máistreacht a bhaint amach in 2021, bronnadh scoláireacht ICUF uirthi agus chaith sí bliain ag múineadh na Gaeilge i St. Thomas University, New Brunswick, Ceanada. Anois, tá sí ag teagasc i gCorcaigh agus í i mbun a cuid taighde. Tá dánta dá cuid foilsithe in Éigse Éireann agus Comhar.
Éire Ní Fhaoláin - Tá Éire Ní Fhaoláin ocht mbliana déag d’aois agus is file, cruitire, fidléir agus amhránaí í. Canann sí amhráin thraidisiúnta agus amhráin ar an sean nós. Beidh sí ag tosú i gColáiste na Tríonóide chun staidéar a dhéanamh ar an nGaeilge agus ar an gCeol i mí Mheán Fómhair. Tá paisean ag Éire don scríbhneoireacht i nGaeilge agus i mBéarla. D’fhoilsigh sí a céad chnuasach filíochta i nGaeilge dar teideal ‘Tuigim’ anuraidh. In 2023, cuireadh ceist uirthi dán nua trí mheán na Gaeilge a chumadh do ‘Chosán na mBan’, clár nua le Treasa Bhreathnach ar Raidió na Gaeltachta. ‘Tuigim’ an t-ainm a bhí ar an dán a chum sí agus spreag sé ainm an leabhair fhilíochta. Tá tionchar ag an nádúr, daoine, áit, cultúr, an bhreathnóireacht agus áilleacht an tsaoil ar fhilíocht Éire. Anuas air sin, tarraingíonn sí a cuid inspioráide ó bhéaloideas agus traidisiúin na tíre atá snite in oidhreacht na hÉireann. Is breá le hÉire triail a bhaint as cheol na cruite a chur lena cuid filíochta ar stáitse. Tá filíocht, amhráin sa stíl thraidisiúnta agus scríbhneoireacht Éire foilsithe ag Fighting Words, Irish Times, UNESCO City of Literature, A Little Book of Brigid,
The Wexford Bohemian i measc irisí liteartha eile. I mbliana, tugadh cuireadh di píosa scríbhneoireachta a chumadh do chlár le Marcus Mac Conghail ar Raidió na Gaeltachta, ‘Aistí ón Aer’. Tá áthas an domhain ar Éire go bhfuil sí páirteach i gCeadlínte Éigse Éireann 2024.
Scríobhann Joanne McCarthy i bPort Láirge. Tá a saothar le léamh i bhfoilsiúcháin éagsúla, ina measc sna cnuasaigh Lampa ar Lasadh: Gradam Mháire Mhac an tSaoi, The Stony Thursday Book agus Hold Open the Door: The Ireland Chair of Poetry Anthology. Cuireadh dánta dá cuid i gcló ar irisí éagsúla – Comhar, Aneas, The Stinging Fly, Poetry Ireland Review, Channel, Howl, The Four Faced Liar agus Rattle ina measc. Bhuaigh sí comórtas An Fhéich Dhuibh, 2023. Tá sí i mbun máistreachta san Fhilíocht in Ionad Seamus Heaney, Ollscoil na mBanríona. Is comheagarthóir í ar an iris The Waxed Lemon. @josieannarua
Máire Ní Laoire - Rugadh Máire Ní Laoire i gCorcaigh, áit ar tógadh í le Gaeilge. Chaith sí a saol oibre ag múineadh Gaeilge agus Fraincise. Thosaigh sí ag scríobh go cruthaitheach
cúpla bliain ó shin. Tá saothar léi le léamh in 'I mBun Pinn', 'I mBun Pinn 2' agus Cork Words.
Sorcha de Brún was awarded her PhD in Irish from Ulster University in Belfast, Northern Ireland and is a lecturer in Irish in the School of English, Irish and Communication in the University of Limerick. She has published poems in various anthologies, such as Comhar and An Gúm, is a recipient of the Duais Foras na Gaeilge/Foras na Gaeilge Prize, the Máirtín Ó Cadhain Short Story Award, numerous Oireachtas na Gaeilge literary awards, and her short stories and poetry feature on the Séideán Sí Irish Primary Curriculum. A former John and Pat Hume Scholarship Awardee in Maynooth University, she has also translated a selection of Shakespeare’s sonnets as well as the works of numerous German, Irish and American poets. A former choir director, piano teacher and organist, she has recently translated and arranged a selection of Lieder for Irish, and set these works to the art song compositions of composer Albin Fries. Sorcha’s latest visual art poem, ‘I mo Bholg’, combining her poetry and her Gaelic script calligraphy and which reflects on the legacy of Brigid of Kildare, will appear in Arlen House’s forthcoming anthology of poetry and art, Fire (2024).
Bhain Sorcha de Brún PhD amach sa Ghaeilge in Ollscoil Uladh, Béal Féirste, agus is léachtóir le Gaeilge í i Scoil na Gaeilge, an Bhéarla agus na Cumarsáide in Ollscoil Luimnigh. Tá dánta foilsithe ag Sorcha i saothair agus in irisí liteartha, Comhar agus An Gúm ina measc. Tá duiseanna éagsúla liteartha buaite aici, idir Dhuais Foras na Gaeilge, Dhuais Ghearrscealaíochta Mháirtín Uí Chadhain mar aon le roinnt duaiseannna liteartha de chuid Oireachtas na Gaeilge. Tá gearrscéalta agus filíocht Shorcha mar chuid de Shéideán Sí agus ar Churaclam na Bunscoile. Iarbhuaiteoir Scoláireacht John agus Pat Hume is ea Sorcha, agus tá roinnt soinéad le Shakespeare aistrithe go Gaeilge aici, mar aon le dánta le filí ón nGearmáin, ó na Stáit Aontaithe agus ó Éirinn. Agus í ina stiúrthóir cóir, ina múinteoir pianó, agus ina horgánaí tráth den saol, tá Lieder éagsúla aistrithe go Gaeilge aici, agus cóirithe do shaothair ceoil Albin Fries, i measc cumadóirí eile. Beidh dán nua amharc- ealaíne Shorcha, ‘I mo Bholg’, saothar a chuimsíonn a cuid filíochta lena peannaireacht sa chló Ghaelach, ag teacht i gcló go luath sa díolaim ealaíne is filíochta dar teideal Fire (Arlen House, 2024).