NEW ISLES PRESS Issue 2 Launch

Contributing authors featuring in New Isles Press issue 2 are. 

Peter Adair’s is from Bangor, Northern Ireland. His poems have appeared in The Honest Ulsterman, PN Review, The Bangor Literary Journal, Poetry Ireland Review, Boyne Berries, A New Ulster and other journals.  He has been shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney Award for New Writing.  An e-pamphlet Calling Card is available from Amazon 

James Anthony is a Galway-based poet. His work has been published in Skylight 47 and Local Wonders. His poems were shortlisted for the Red Line Book Festival 2020, the Jonathan Swift Creative Writing Awards 2019, and Over the Edge New Writer of the Year 2017. 

Jessica Barry In 2021, Berry’s poetry was placed in the prestigious Aspects Literary Festival. In 2022, she was awarded second place at the Fingal Poetry Festival’s slam competition. Her work has been included in a variety of publications such as Drawn to the Light, A New Ulster, Whale Road Review, Rust and Moth.  

Hannah Baxter is a writer based in Omagh, County Tyrone. She has ASD and achieved a first-class honours degree in English with Creative Writing, followed by an MA with distinction in English from Queen’s University Belfast. Her work has been featured in the Love the Words 2021 edition poetry anthology. 

Annette Condon writes poetry and prose, and hails from Cahir, Co Tipperary. In 2021, she was published in Around Each Bend, a collection of poetry and prose by Tipperary writers. One of her prose pieces also featured in the 2022 edition of Ireland’s Own Anthology of Winning Irish Short Stories and Memories. 

Gráinne Condron is a poet and writer based in Dublin. Her work has been published in VIBE, the Brendan Kennelly Cup, and the London Magazine. She attended the Cúirt International Festival of Literature 2023 as a Young Writer Delegate. Her work traverses topics from climate anxiety and politics, to childhood and queer joy. 

Miriam Colleran is a doctor in Kildare. She lives with her daughters and their dogs. She is interested in grief, illness and caregiving, compassionate care and an Ghaeilge. 

Cormac Culkeen is a writer of poetry, fiction, short stories and nonfiction. He lives in Galway, Ireland, and is currently completing an MA in Writing at the University of Galway. His poetry has been published in the Burning Bush, Skylight 47, The Wild Word, Causeway, Apricot Press, Bindweed, and Ropes Literary Journal. 

Philip Davison is a novelist and playwright, who also writes radio drama. He co-wrote Learning Gravity, a BBC Storyville documentary on poet and undertaker, Thomas Lynch. His poems have appeared in various journals. He is a member of Aosdána. 

Michael Durack lives in County Tipperary. His work features in journals such as The Blue Nib, Live Encounters, The Waxed Lemon, The Honest Ulsterman, and Poetry Ireland Review. His collections are Where It Began (2017), Flip Sides (2020) and This Deluge of Words (2023) from Revival Press 

Shakeena Edwards is an Antiguan American writer living in Northern Ireland, where she is studying poetry at Queen’s University Belfast as the recipient of the Seamus Heaney International Poetry Scholarship and an Ireland Chair of Poetry Student Award.

Her work has appeared in The Apiary, Propel Magazine, and the Ulster Museum’s ekphrasis anthology What Could Be Carried, as well as in Tongues of the Ocean and So the Nailhead Bend, So the Story End, anthologies of Antiguan writers.

Michael Farry’s latest poetry collection, Troubles (2020), is published by Revival Press, Limerick. Previous collections were Asking for Directions (Doghouse Books, 2012) and The Age of Glass (Revival, 2017). He has just published, with Canadian poet Carolyne Van Der Meer, a chapbook, Broken Pieces, on their respective hospital experience. He has also written and published widely on the Sligo experience of the Irish War of Independence and the Civil War. 

S.C. Flynn was born in a small town in Australia of Irish origin and now lives in Dublin. His poetry has been published in many magazines, including Rattle, Quadrant, Cyphers and the Honest Ulsterman. 

Bernadette Gallagher was born in Donegal and lives in County Cork. Her poetry is published in, among other outlets, Agenda, Crannóg, The Stinging Fly, The North, Stony Thursday, Dreich, The Frogmore Papers, Southword, University College Dublin Poetry Archive and Words Lightly Spoken podcast. 

Teresa Godfrey is a poet and fiction writer based in Co Fermanagh. Her first poetry collection This, Also, Is Mercy was published by Summer Palace Press in 2021. 

Ifor ph Glyn was appointed National Poet of Wales in 2016 and in 1999 and 2013  he won the Crown at the National Eisteddfod of Wales. He worked as a TV producer and scriptwriter and has worked extensively with the theatre company Cwmni Dda. Ifor ph Glyn writes in both Welsh and English with his commissioned work including poems to mark 20th anniversary of the Senedd, and the centenary of the Armistice Wales, and the 80th anniversary of Mynydd Epynt eviction.  His time as National Poet of Wales lasted six years coming to an end in 2022. 

Christina Hennemann is a poet and prose writer based in Ireland. She’s a recipient of the Irish Arts Council’s Agility Award ’23 and she was longlisted in the National Poetry Competition. Her work is forthcoming or appears in Poetry Wales, The Iowa Review, Skylight 47, The Moth, York Literary Review, fifth wheel, and Ink Sweat & Tears.

D G Herring's writing-desk looks north-west over the Stour valley (Dorset) from a ridge inhabited by seagulls and crows. David’s poems have appeared in South Poetry Magazine, Dreich, Nangle’s The Occasional Poetry Magazine, and is forthcoming in Poetry Salzburg Review 41. His chapbook, The Sheliand, is published by Dithering Chaps. 

Aodán McCardle is a poet and artist and co-editor at Veer Books. His PhD is on Action as Articulation of the Contemporary Poem through physicality and doubt. His current practice is improvised performance/writing/drawing as a finding out. 

Aodán “Jaff” Mac Séafraidh, originally from Carrickfergus got involved in traditional music and culture in his teenage years, learning tin whistle,bouzouki and uilleann pipes. This interest in music lead to a regular attendance at sessions in the Town Hall Bar in Larne and the Meeting House in Cairncastle.Later becoming a semi-professional musician, Aodán played with bands in both Ireland and Australia, including Tulca Mór, The Jar, Ériu, An Corráiste/The LuckPenny and The Armagh Rhymers. Aodán has taken his music and storytelling performances to France, Germany, Scotland, Australia and the US.This involvement in music also lead to a life-long interest in the Irish Language.Despite not having learned Irish at school, Aodán developed a fascination intraditional Irish Language music and culture. After attending classes organisedby the Workers’ Education Association and later An Cumann Chluain Ard,Aodán became fluent in the language and soon became a teacher of adults,later completing Master’s degree at Queen’s University Belfast.

Karen J McDonnell is published in Vital Signs (Poetry Ireland), Romance Options (Dedalus Press), in Crannóg, The Stony Thursday, and The North. Her poem ‘Driftwood’ was shortlisted for 2021 Irish Poem of the Year. Work was Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize nominated. Her collection is This Little World (Doire Press). 

Ciarán Parkes lives in Galway. He enjoys writing and photography and swimming. His poems have been published in The Threepenny Review, Autumn Sky Poetry Daily, and other places.

Michael James Treacy Is a retired septuagenarian who lives in idyllic bliss with Mrs Treaclechops and spends much of his time in various literary, artistic and horticultural endeavours. He’s had several poems and short stories published in various anthologies over the last decade. 

Lucia Kenny was born in Northern Ireland, and has had her poetry published in magazines and anthologies including The Dawn Treader and Poetry Ireland Review. Most of her poetry is inspired by her love of the outdoor live. Maeve McKenna Maeve McKenna lives in Sligo, Ireland. Her poetry has been placed in competitions and published widely in print and online. Her debut pamphlet, A Dedication to Drowning, was published in February 2022. Body as a Home for this Darkness, her second pamphlet, will be published in September 2023. 

Maeve McKenna lives in Sligo, Ireland. Her poetry has been placed in competitions and published widely in print and online. Her debut pamphlet, A Dedication to Drowning, was published in February 2022. Body as a Home for this Darkness, her second pamphlet, will be published in September 2023.

Alan Millar is from the Laggan area of east Donegal. Based in Ballymoney, Co Antrim, Journalist, he is a writer and poet in Ulster-Scots and English. In 2021 he won the Hugh MacDiarmid Tassie for Scots poetry and the inaugural Linenhall Library Ulster-Scots short story competition. He writes an Ulster-Scots newspaper column for the Ballymoney Chronicle called Leid Loanen, and his first collection of poetry Echas frae tha Big Swilly Swally was published May this year. . He was nominated for Scots Writer of the Year in the 2023 Scots Language Awards. Alan won third prize in the Thomas Carnduff ‘Shipyard Poet’ competition 2023 as part of EastSide Arts Festival. 

Georgina was born in East Belfast, and despite having lived elsewhere has always felt a draw to return to the red brick streets she knows as home. Her family is deeply embedded in East Belfast and her late grandmother worked in the ropeworks, once  besides CS Lewis Square. Her grandmother recounted tales of poverty, exploitation and industrial inspiration, along with the rich but forgotten industrial heritage of the area. Georgina has always written poetry and prose and has previously published poems about Belfast's urban landscape. She has recently returned to writing after a long hiatus. Georgina poem ‘Screaming Looms’ won second prize in the Thomas Carnduff ‘Shipyard Poet’ competition 2023 as part of EastSide Arts Festival.

Jeanna Louise Ni Riordain English language poem featured in issue 1 of New Isles Press and she is delighted to have her work in Irish published in Issue 2. Jeanna Louise Ni Riordain is an Irish-language translator and language tutor from West Cork, Ireland. She has a PhD in French literature, and a BA in Irish. Jack Power Jack Power is a third level year Law student at University of Galway, He is passionate for creative writing having previously published multiple poems in various poetry anthologies. 

Patrick Slevin work has appeared in Poetry Ireland Review, The Cormorant, Skylight 47, The Poets’ Republic, The Manchester Review, Ink, Sweat and Tears, The Interpreter's House, and The Blue Nib, and has also been featured on RTE's Poem of the Day. 

Daniel Stokes’s published work includes Poetry, Interest and other Poems (Spur Press, 1991) and Buying a Sweater (Keepsake Press, 1987). Plays: God, Men and God Knows What (based on the works of James Stephens, 1996) and Metered Heartbeats (1982). Resident Dramatist and director for French Theatre for Schools. 

Heather Robinson is a TURAS East Belfast Irish language student. 

Daniel is a poet, playwright, and novelist from Dublin, Ireland. His spoken-word album Embers and Earth, available for download on iTunes and Spotify, launched the previous October at the National Concert Hall. In January 2017, his play The Collector opened the 20th anniversary season of the New Theatre, Dublin. In January 2020, his radio drama Crossing the Red Line was broadcast on RTE Radio 1 Extra, later winning a silver award at the New York Festivals Radio Awards for Best Digital Drama. His short film Sea State Martello, a tribute to James Joyce’s Ulysses, had its world premiere at the 2022 Bloomsday Film Festival for the centenary of the novel’s publication. Daniel is the author of the poetry collections Iceberg Relief (Underground Voices, 2017), Rapids (Finishing Line Press, 2021), as well as the novel A Land Without Wolves (Temple Dark Books, 2021). He currently lives in Mayo. Daniel won first prize in the Thomas Carnduff ‘Shipyard Poet’ competition 2023 as part of EastSide Arts Festival. 

Mark is the author of the collection Nightlight (Salmon Poetry, 2023) and four chapbooks: Circumference (Finishing Line Press, 2018), Carcass (Seven Kitchens Press, 2020), the prose/haiku/hybrid HIKE (Bear Creek Press, 2022) and the Choose Your Own Adventure sonnet, Faultlines (voidspace, 2023). His poems have been featured in The Irish Times, The Irish Independent, Poetry Ireland Review, The North, Banshee, Crannóg, Southword, Skylight47, The Honest Ulsterman, ROPES, fourteen poems, Softblow and many more, as well as anthologies, the most recent of which is Queering the Green: Post-2000 Queer Irish Poetry. He was Highly Commended in the 2019 and 2022 Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Awards, and in 2020 was shortlisted for the Cúirt New Writing Prize and selected for Poetry Ireland’s Introductions series. In 2021 and 2022, he was awarded bursaries from the Arts Council of Ireland. He has recorded poems for RTÉ Radio 1’s Arena and The Poetry Programme, Lyric FM’s Poetry File and the podcast Words Lightly Spoken. He is the founding editor of Impossible Archetype, an international journal of LGBTQ+ poetry, now in its seventh year. 

Alan Weadick has had poems and short stories published widely, most recently in The Honest Ulsterman, Cyphers, Blackbox Manifold and the Culture Matters anthology Cry of the Poor. He was the winner of the 2020 Mairtin Crawford/Belfast Book Festival award for poetry. 

Glen Wilson is a multi-award winning poet from Portadown. He won the Seamus Heaney Award for New Writing (2017), the Jonathan Swift Creative Writing Award (2018), the Trim Poetry competition (2019), and the Slipstream Open Poetry competition (2021). His collection An Experience on the Tongue is forthcoming.