Cover of Washing Windows Too Edited by Alan Hayes and Nuala O’Connor
I’m delighted to be taking part in this year’s Strokestown International Poetry Festival. I will be reading my poem “1922” alongside other women poets published in Washing Windows Too: Irish Women Write Poetry edited by Alan Hayes and Nuala O’Connor (Arlen House).
This event will feature readings from: Sorcha de Brún, Mary Rose Callaghan, Louise G. Cole, Sonya Gildea, Shauna Gilligan, Phyl Herbert, Susan Knight, Jackie Lynam, Noelle Lynskey, Jennifer Matthews, Triona McMorrow, Elizabeth Murtough, Denise Nagle, Úna Ní Cheallaigh, Margaret Nohilly, Margaret O’Brien, Margaret O’Driscoll, Siofra O’Meara, Ruth O’Shea & Janet Pierce.
Do join us in The Percy French Hotel on Saturday 30th April at 3.30pm!
With thanks to Alan Hayes and Strokestown International Poetry Festival for the invitation.
Cover of Washing Windows Too (artwork showing female figures in shades of blue, greens, yellows)
I’m delighted to have a poem “1922” included in Washing Windows Too: Irish Women Write Poetry (Eds: Nuala O’ Connor and Alan Hayes), a new anthology featuring 100 Irish women poets who have not published a full poetry collection.
Congratulations to all the contributors! And thank you to Nuala and Alan for including my poem.
Pre-order your advance copy from the wonderful Books Upstairs until 14 March after which the book will be available to bookshops island-wide.
Exhibition image: a ball of paper with writing on it on a pink background with the words “Thoughts on Paper” in black marker across it.
I’m delighted to have new fiction included in the “Thoughts on Paper” exhibition in Oriel y Bont Gallery, University of South Wales (17 January – 25 February 2022). My fiction “Waking The Mermaids” was a response to some powerful artwork by Frances Woodley entitled “Dump 2020” Digital Painting 100 x 120cm.
I especially enjoyed the process of including drafts of my work-in-progress alongside the edited, final (can it ever be final!) piece.
With thanks to the curators and Barrie LLewelyn for including my writing.
About the exhibition
The exhibition brings together a group of artists from Wales who are interested in exploiting the versatile possibilities of working with such an everyday material. Paper combines fragility and durability in equal measure. It is a material that artists and writers have traditionally used to render their first thoughts; to make drafts, models and prototypes but it can also be used to capture spontaneity and immediacy in more resolved artworks. Every mark or crease is hard to erase, making an exhibition focused on work dependent on paper the ideal way to examine the creative process.
The exhibition includes work by Adéọlá Dewis, Penny Hallas, Richard Higlett, Sue Hunt, Maggie James, Kieran Lyons, Thomas Martin, Phil Nicol, Chris Nurse, Heather Parnell, Alan Salisbury, Stephanie Tuckwell, Tessa Waite, Frances Woodley together with responses from creative writers Maria Donovan, Judith Goldsmith, Sarah Klenbort, Kate Noakes, Shauna Gilligan, Malcolm Lewis, Samuel Mark Sargeant, Georgia Bolton, and Donna-Louise Bishop.
Shauna Gilligan Writer 