Ten poets selected for Poetry Ireland Introductions Series 2021
Poetry Ireland is delighted to announce that the ten poets selected to participate in this year’s Introductions Series are Simon Costello, Eoin McEvoy, William Keohane, Molly Twomey, Sonya Gildea, Siobhán Ní Dhomhnaill, Laura McKenna, Jamie Field, Sacha White, and Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan.
These emerging poets were chosen by award-winning poet Seán Hewitt and Irish language poet Aifric Mac Aodha from a record-breaking number of applicants. Following workshops with Seán Hewitt, Jessica Traynor, Annemarie Ní Churreáin, the poets will take part in an public showcase in the autumn. Two of the poets, Eoin McEvoy and Siobhán Ní Dhomhnaill, will also take part in an Irish language session with Aifric Mac Aodha. The showcase will be accompanied by an ebook of the poets’ work, available as a free download.
We’re delighted to welcome this new series of poets and hope that the Introductions Series will provide them with many new creative opportunities as they launch their promising writing careers.
2021 Introductions Series
Simon Costello’s poetry is published and forthcoming in Banshee, The Irish Times, Magma, The North, Poetry Ireland Review, Rattle, The Rialto, The Stinging Fly, The Tangerine, The Best New British and Irish Poets 2019-2021 among others. A selection of his poems were broadcast on RTÉ Radio’s Poetry File and will appear in an upcoming anthology published by The Lifeboat Press. He was a recipient of the 2020 Words Ireland National Mentoring Programme. In 2021 he was awarded 1st prize in The Rialto Nature and Place Competition and the Literature Bursary Award from the Arts Council of Ireland. He lives in Tullamore, Co. Offaly and works for Granta magazine.
Is teicneolaí oideachais agus teagascóir é Eoin Mc Evoy le UCD ach nuair nach mbíonn sé ar an gcampas is ealaíontóir é a oibríonn trí mheán na Gaeilge i réimse leathan meán. Saothraíonn sé i réimsí na filíochta, an rap agus na hamhránaíochta, i réimse an aistriúcháin, i réimse na drámaíochta agus i réimse na hamharc-ealaíne. Cuireann Eoin an-suim i gcothú phobal na Gaeilge agus go háirithe i ról na n-ealaíon sa méid sin. Bhí Eoin ina chomhbhunaitheoir leis an bhfile Ciara Ní É ar an gcomharghrúpa ealaíne AerachAiteachGaelach a tháinig ar an saol in Amharclann na Mainistreach (2020). Tá sé ag comhscríobh agus ag comhléiriú an dráma nua Idir Mise agus Craiceanna do Chluaise le Ciara Ní É agus ealaíontóirí eile ó AerachAiteachGaelach mar chuid den Dublin Fringe Festival le tacaíocht ó Oireachtas na Gaeilge (2021).
William Keohane is a writer and poet from Limerick. His work has appeared in Hennessy New Irish Writing and his poems have been broadcast on the RTÉ Radio 1 Sunday Miscellany Programme. He holds an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Limerick.William facilitates Limerick’s monthly transgender peer-support group, Trans Limerick Community (TLC). If you are a trans, non-binary, gender diverse, or questioning adult based in Limerick, and would like to come along to TLC's monthly meetings, please email translimerick@gmail.com.
Molly Twomey has been published in Poetry Ireland Review, Banshee, Mslexia, The Stinging Fly and other journals. In 2021, she won the Eavan Boland Mentorship Award and was awarded an Arts Council Literature Bursary. She is currently working on her debut collection.
Sonya Gildea is a recipient of a 2021 Artist Literature Bursary Award, The Irish Arts Council · Winner of an Ireland Chair of Poetry Student Award 2020-21 · Winner of the Cúirt International New Writer’s Award 2015 · Recipient of a 2021 Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Creative Ireland Artist Literature Bursary Award and a 2021 artist residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre · Recipient of Irish Arts Council 2021 Agility Award · Sonya has published in Crannóg, The Irish Times, The Stinging Fly, the commemorative anthology Hold Open the Door (UCD & Chicago Press, 2020), The Cormorant Broadsheet and The Night Heron Barks. Sonya holds an MA, Creative Writing, University College Dublin. She is currently writing a 1st poetry collection 500 Seconds · A Chapbook with river illustrations, The Nine River Beats of Owenea set in Glenties, Co. Donegal. She is completing the prose short story collection, The Switching Yard and exploring, researching and developing a multi-disciplinary word project & installation, Rewriting the Constitution.
Siobhán Ní Dhomhnaill is a bilingual poet. She was born and raised in Listowel, Co.Kerry. After finishing her degree in BCL (Law and Irish), she undertook a Masters in European Law and the Irish Language in University College Cork. She is currently studying to be a secondary school teacher in NUI Galway. Her first book, a collection of Irish language poetry Ait agus Iontach Bheith Beo was published by Coisceim in 2020. She is the winner of the Unpublished Collection of Poetry Award at Listowel Writers Week in 2019. Her poems have been published in the magazines Motley, Sonder and Strukturriss. She released her first spoken word poem ‘Why I’m Not A Buddhist’ under the alias The Puffin Poet in 2021. This project delivers genre-bending poetry to compulsive indie-pop music that emphasises the spirit of discovery and experimentation at the heart of the Siobhán Ní Dhomhnaill’s work.
Laura McKenna has been nominated twice for a Hennessy Literary Award for poetry and is the recipient of two Arts Council Literature bursaries. She was awarded a John Montague Mentorship Bursary in 2019 and commended in the Gregory O’Donoghue International Poetry Prize in 2018. Laura has a PhD in Creative Writing from University College Cork. Her debut novel Words to Shape My Name was published by New Island in 2021 and shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award.
With poems published in the Honest Ulsterman, Magma, The North and Southbank Poetry, Jamie Field is studying for a MA in Poetry at Queens University Belfast. He is originally from Pontefract, West Yorkshire. He is deaf.
Sacha White is currently working towards a Masters in Poetry at Queen's University Belfast. She was a 2020 recipient of the Ireland Chair of Poetry Student Award, and is a contributing editor for The Tangerine. She has been published in the Honest Ulsterman and her work is included in the upcoming anthology Queering the Green from Lifeboat Press.
Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan (She/Her) is a Dublin-based arts manager, writer, and performer from India. Her work has been published in Writing Home: The ‘New Irish’ Poets from Dedalus Press, The Ireland Chair of Poetry Hold Open the Door anthology by UCD Press, The Green Carnations: 25 Young LGBTQ+ Poets from Ireland anthology by Book Hub Publishing, Banshee, Honest Ulsterman, Impossible Archetype, and Poetry Ireland Review. In 2020 Chandrika won 3rd place in the Fingal Poetry Prize. Chandrika is editor of Poetry Ireland’s Trumpet issue 9, and book reviewer for Children’s Books Ireland’s Inis magazine. In 2021 Chandrika joined the Board of the Irish Writers Centre.