
12 minute read
Notes on Contributors
Notes on Contributors
Peter Adair’s poems have appeared in The Honest Ulsterman, PN Review, Poetry Ireland Review, Boyne Berries, The Bangor Literary Journal, The Poets’ Republic and other journals and anthologies. He has been shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney Award for New Writing. He lives in Bangor, Co Down.
Advertisement
Mickey Bell was born in Columbia and grew up in Florence, South Carolina. He graduated from the College of Charleston, and the seminary at Emory. He served for forty-four years in ministry in the UMC all over SC. His main hobbies were music and tennis. He always enjoyed photography but took it more seriously with the end of his tennis career. He studied art at USC taking most of their photography courses and he has participated in several photo groups. He enjoys all aspects of digital photography but gravitates to wildlife captures.
Edel Burke lives in Castlebar, Co. Mayo. She was the winner of Dromineer Poetry Competition 2017, and she was highly commended by iYeats Poetry 2017. She has been published in Something About Home, New Writing on Migration and Belonging, Crannóg, Boyne Berries, Banshee, The Cormorant, The Rush Anthology.
New to the writing scene and enjoying the practice of it and the community very much, Jenny Byrne engages with writing as her creative way to process aspects of life around her and her experience. Her poems have been published in The Galway Review and Impspired.
Niamh Clarke is from Dundalk. Her interests include veganism, walking, cooking, writing, reading and keeping healthy. She is interested in form and the musicality of poetry, the playful side of language (indulges in the odd pun), and feels she is always trying to develop her voice and place through poetry.
Rachel Coventry’s poems have appeared in The North, The Moth, Poetry Ireland Review, Stand, The Irish Times, The Shop, and have featured on RTE Lyric FM. She holds a PhD in philosophy from the National University of Ireland, Galway. Her debut collection Afternoon Drinking in the Jolly Butchers (2018) is published by Salmon poetry.
Lucy Crispin is a former Poet Laureate of South Cumbria. She’s been published widely in print and online, most recently in Poetry Birmingham, Speckled Trout, Anthropocene, Pennine Platform and Channel. Her pamphlets wish you were here and shades of blue are published by Hedgehog Press. Find out more at lucycrispin.com.
Deirdre McKernan Crosby lives in Greystones Co. Wicklow. Her first published poem, Uninvited Guest appeared in 2019 in Bray Arts Journal. Her work is also published in Boyne Berries Literary Journal, The Blue Nib and Pendemic.ie. Her poem There Will Be Time – Cancer & Covid-19 is preserved in the Irish Poetry Reading Archive, UCD Library. Her most recent published work Diary 1952 was read as part of Poetry Day Ireland 2021.
Anamaria Julia Dragomir came from Romania to find a home away from home here in Ireland. She has studied Philology, Literature and Philosophy. She has started to write verse in a moment of overwhelming sensitivity and is hoping to touch the borders of literature.
Tom Driscoll lives in Framingham, Massachusetts USA with his wife, artist Denise Driscoll. He’s published several collections of poems, most recently ‘Odd Numbers’ (2017).
Honor Duff is a member of the Cavan-Meath Lit-Lab Writers Group, has been published in various journals including Boyne Berries, Crannóg Magazine, The Stony Thursday Book, and Skylight 47.
Ann Marie Dunne lives in Co. Kildare. She is currently a (very!) mature student at Carlow College doing a degree in Arts & Humanities. She loves hiking, boating and being in nature. She is unpublished and trying to hone her skills in poetry Kate Ennals is a board member of Irish PEN/PEN na h'Éireann. Her collections include At the Edge (Lapwing), Threads (Lapwing), and Elsewhere (forthcoming from Salmon Poetry).
Attracta Fahy Psychotherapist, MA.Writing NUIG. October winner in Irish Times New Irish Writing 2019, Pushcart, Best of Web nominee, shortlisted for Over The Edge New Writer 2019, Allingham Poetry festival 2019 & 2020. Fly on the Wall Poetry published her debut chapbook collection Dinner in the Fields, in March’20.
Pauline Flynn is a Visual Artist/Poet and has an MA in Creative Writing from University College Dublin, Ireland. She was shortlisted for the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award in 2010 and is published in various literary journals including Skylight 47, Boyne Berries, Sixteen Magazine, Irl. Light, a Journal of Photography and Poetry, NY, Orbis 81, and The Blue Nib, UK.
S.C. Flynn was born in Australia of Irish origin and now lives in Dublin. His poetry has recently been published in Cyphers and Abridged.
Siobhán Flynn has been placed and shortlisted in a number of poetry competitions including the Hennessy New Irish Writing Award. Her poetry has appeared in anthologies and literary journals, including Visual Verse, The Pickled Body, Amsterdam Quarterly and The Poetry Bus. She is working towards her first collection.
Edel Hanley is currently researching for a PhD in women’s war writing at University College Cork. She has recently been awarded an Irish Research Council Postgraduate Award for her research in October 2020. Edel regularly hosts poetry and short story writing courses for gifted children alongside the Centre for Talented Youth Ireland (CTYI) and her poetry and fiction have previously been published in Crannog Magazine, #mentalhealthformillennials, New Writer’s Café Magazine, and Quarryman Literary Journal.
Jem Henderson is a nonbinary queer poet living in Leeds, UK. They have an MA in Creative Writing from York St. John University. They have been published in Civic Leicester's Black Lives Matter anthology, Streetcake, Full House and Dreich. They can be found on twitter and instagram @jem_face. They're working on their first collection.
Christina Hession is a native of Dunmore, Co Galway. She has been published in Boyne Berries, Vox Galvia, Bangor Literary Journal, Ropes and The Honest Ulsterman. Christina holds an MA in Creative Writing from UCC.
Roisin Horgan lives in West Clare on the Shannon Estuary. She works as a mediator and writes constantly. She is inspired by her surroundings and the manner in which nature can bring emotion to the surface, bringing healing if not closure. She has four children and loves to garden. This is her first publication.
Huw Gwynn-Jones comes from a line of published poets in the Welsh bardic tradition, but until his recent retirement to Orkney, had never penned a line himself. He now writes to find a different way of hearing the world, and has poems accepted by Eunoia Review, Amethyst Review and Dreich Magazine.
Sven Kretzschmar is a prize-winning poet from Germany. His poetry has been published widely in Europe and overseas, among other outlets in Writing Home. The ‘New Irish’ Poets (Dedalus Press, 2019), Hold Open the Door (UCD Press, 2020), Voices 2020 (Cold River Press, 2020) The Irish Times, and Das Gedicht.
Edward Lee is an artist and writer from Ireland. His paintings and photography have been exhibited widely, while his poetry, short stories, non-fiction have been published in magazines in Ireland, England and America, including The Stinging Fly, Skylight 47, Acumen and Smiths Knoll. He is currently working on two photography collections: 'Lying Down With The Dead' and 'There Is A Beauty In Broken Things'. He also makes musical noise under the names Ayahuasca Collective, Orson Carroll, Lego Figures Fighting, and Pale Blond Boy. His blog/website can be found at https://edwardmlee.wordpress.com
Katy Mahon is working on two, as yet unpublished pamphlets, and a collaboration with English seascape artist Carolyn Coles. Katy is a member of Wednesday Wordship workshops in Yorkshire, and she has a poem being published in the inaugural edition of Dublin-based The Liminal Review later this year.
Martin Mc Carthy was born in Co. Waterford, Ireland, He now lives in Cork, and is a graduate of UCC, where he studied English. He is at present working on his first full-length collection, titled Lockdown., which is due to be published by Three Spires Press in 2021.
Sinéad McClure is a writer, radio producer, and illustrator. Her poetry has been published on Poethead, Live Encounters ~ Poetry & Writing, Crossways Literary Journal, The Cabinet of Heed, Dodging the Rain, StepAway Magazine and The Ekphrastic Review. Sinéad has also written 15 dramas for the National Radio Children's Service, RTEjr Radio on the themes of conservation and Ireland's natural heritage. She often revisits these theme inher work and has a particular interest in wildlife conservation. In March 2021 Sinéad won the Ó Bhéal International Five Words Poetry Competition. Sinéad lives in rural County Sligo, with her husband and their two border collies.
Avril McDonnell lives in Douglas, Cork. She has a great interest in nature and animal welfare. New to painting she has been exploring styles over the last ten months. She dapples in all areas of art and crafts but favours painting with acrylics. Her style is loose, abstract, and drawn to painting wildflowers. Her other interests include gardening, writing (poetry and short stories) and singing.
Linda McKenna’s debut poetry collection, In the Museum of Misremembered Things, was published by Doire Press in 2020. The title poem won the An Post/Irish Book Awards, Irish Poem of the Year. In 2018 she won the Seamus Heaney Award for New Writing and the Red Line Festival Award. She has had poems published in a variety of publications including, Poetry Ireland Review, Banshee, The North, The Honest Ulsterman, Crannóg.
Siobhán Mc Laughlin is a poet from Co. Donegal, Ireland. She has a MA in Creative Writing and is a creative writing facilitator. Her poems have been published in The Honest Ulsterman, The Ekphrastic Review, Quince magazine, The Poetry Village, Bealtaine magazine and Drawn to the Light Press. Twitter: @siobhan347.
Polly Richardson Munnelly currently lives and writes in Dingle, Co. Kerry, Ireland. Co-host & MC for Impspired lit mag poetry nights, she continues to run groups the Bulls Arse Writers & Worldly Worders remotely. She has been published both nationally and internationally. Her collection Winter’s Breath is available on Amazon.
Alan Murphy is the Waterford-based writer and illustrator of four collections of poetry for children and teenagers. He has been featured in books of the year articles in the Irish Times and twice shortlisted for the CAP awards for independent authors. He has also contributed poetry and visual art to numerous outlets and anthologies and writes for Inis magazine.
John Noonan is a member of Dundalk Writers. His work has been published in magazines and journals in Ireland and the U.S. He has been shortlisted in many competitions and is a winner of the Goldsmith Poetry Award. Jamie O’Halloran is an American poet who lives in the West of Ireland. Her poems appear most recently in Crannóg, One Hand Clapping, The Honest Ulsterman, The Night Heron Barks and The Galway Review. Her poetry reviews are in Lit Pub and Tupelo Quarterly.
Maeve O'Sullivan works in further education in Dublin. Her poetry and haikai have been widely published and anthologized. She is the author of four collections from Alba Publishing, with a fifth forthcoming in June 2021. Maeve is a member of the Hibernian Poetry Group, leads haiku workshops, and reviews for various journals. Twitter @writefromwithin.
Eugene Platt lives in Charleston, South Carolina, with his wife Judith, corgi Bess, and cats Finnegan and Maeve. He holds a Diploma in Anglo-Irish Literature from Trinity College Dublin. His poems have appeared in Poetry Ireland Review, Boyne Berries, Capella, etc. Revival Press published his collection Nuda Veritas in 2020.
Tamasine Plowman is a 44 years young mum & multi- instrumentalist musician, based in Limerick. She has run a music school in Castletroy for 6 years and is currently part of the NCH female conductors programme. She has written poetry throughout her life starting back as a teenager, whilst studying at Chethams school of music Manchester. She has always found words, like music, a powerful tool to express life and its journey.
David Ratcliffe is a poet, playwright, short story writer from the north west of England. He has been published in a number of magazines both on-line and in print. In 2016 his poem ‘Home Straight’ featured at the Fermoy International Festival. The stage play ‘Intervention’ was produced for World Peace Day. His poem ‘He Crawled’ was placed third for the Pushcart Prize in the Blue Nib magazine in 2018. In 2018 his poem ‘Pour me a Vision’ featured in VatsalaRadhakeesoon.wordpress.com for Dylan Thomas Day.
Originally from Clare, Fionn Rogan is a senior researcher in climate and energy policy and modelling in University College Cork.
Breda Wall Ryan lives in Bray, Co. Wicklow. Internationally published, her awards include The Gregory O’Donoghue International Poetry Prize, and Dermot Healy International Poetry Award. A founder member of Hibernian Poetry, her collections, both from Doire Press, are In a Hare’s Eye (Shine/Strong Award 2016), and Raven Mothers (2018).
Maresa Sheehan's writing has/will appear in The Irish Times, Poetry Ireland Review, BlackBough Poetry, Dodging the Rain, Boyne Berries, Dreich Poetry. Winner Goldsmith Poetry Competition, second Westival Poetry Competition 2020, HC: Bridport, Over The Edge, Hungry Hill, Fool for Poetry Competitions. Shortlisted: Fish Lockdown Prize, Cuirt Poetry Prize, Allingham Competition.
Chaelio Thomas is a writer from Dublin, Ireland who teaches at second level and enjoys vintage fashion. She has been published on Headstuff.org, Tales From the Forest, Visual Verse, The Honest Ulsterman, The Mondegreen and the Olentangy Review. She is mainly focussing on poetry at the moment despite writing short stories and radio plays in the past. She tweets @Jenanifur.
Carolyne Van Der Meer lives and writes in Montreal, Canada. She has three published books, Motherlode: A Mosaic of Dutch Wartime Experience Journeywoman and Heart of Goodness: The Life of Marguerite Bourgeoys in 30 Poems. Another collection, Sensorial, is forthcoming from Inanna in 2021. Her poetry has been published internationally.
Neal Whitman lives with his wife, Elaine, a mile from Monterey Bay where they watch the tide go out and see what remains. In the debris, he finds images and ideas for his poems. He took up the
profession of poetry when he retired from the profession of teaching. Publications and awards have exceeded his expectations.
https://drawntothelightpress.com
Twitter: @DrawnPress Instagram: @drawntothelightpress
Drawn to the Light Press is edited, designed and produced by Orla Fay.
Cover design Morris Island Lighthouse by Mickey Bell
The works included in this issue are copyright of the poets ©2021 and may not be reproduced or changed in any way without the permission of the individual author.
Drawn to the Light Press is ©2021 of the editor. All rights reserved.