Following the success of the WEB anthology Tearing Stripes off Zebras (edited by Nessa O’Mahony and published by Arlen House), DLR and Ballyogan Libraries will host some members of the WEB Women’s Writing Group in an 8-week programme of creative writing workshops exploring memoir, the craft of writing, the Irish language, poetry, prose.
I’m delighted to be giving a workshop “The Domestic in Poetry and Prose” in Ballyogan Library on September 11th. All Welcome!
I’m honoured to be Poet of the Month for August over at The Lonely Crowd. Many thanks to editor Dr John Lavin for accepting my three poems. Read about my process here.
The first poem, “Self-Butchery In Two Parts”, looks at changing bodies, surgery, and personal V medical approaches to health. You can listen to me reading the poem on the same page.
The second poem, “Daughter, Frizzante (In Padova)“ explores my changing relationship with my adult daughter, and contemplates the roles of mothers and daughters separated by geography.
Finally, the third poem, “Rule of Thirds” touches again on my interest in female relationships. Here I move beyond my own life and attempt to step into “incarceration time” (where the day is set out in thirds) by imagining a fictional imprisoned mother’s wishes for her free daughter, on the cusp of adolescence.
Now that the brighter days are here (though they have already started to shorten), I’m starting another reading and consideration bout; a lovely mix of stories, poetry, philosophy, essays, fiction and non-fiction. I assembled the pile for physical balance rather than any particular order. The following books appear from top to bottom in the photograph above:
Mary O’Donnell Walking Ghosts (Mercier, 2025)
Mary Oliver A Poetry Handbook (HarperCollins, 1994)
Max Porter Shy (Faber, 2023)
Susan Sontag As Consciousness is Harnessed to Flesh (Picador, 2012)
Nóirín Ní Riain Sacred Rituals (Hachette, 2023)
Greg Dinner Fragments (Ogham & Dabar Books, 2025)
Gerald Dawe Catching the Light (Salmon, 2018)
Philip Marsden Under a Metal Sky (Granta, 2025)
Jan Zalasiewicz How to Read a Rock (The History Press, 2022)
Shauna Gilligan Writer 