My niece and I – cue royal plural tone – will be reading together for the first time at an event organised by Poetry Ireland in Dublin on May 17. Julie is a poet, whose first book, I am Where has just come out with Eyewear Publishing, and has been shortlisted for a Saboteur Award. (Not too late to vote, by the way!) We’re reading together as part of The Next Generation, an event jointly organised by the Bealtaine Festival and Poetry Ireland. We’ll be reading with another cross-generation poetic family – Enda Wyley and her nephew, Ciaran O Rourke.(I’ll be outnumbered by poetic types at this gig, reduced to reading mere fiction from my latest collection, Prosperity Drive.) Ciaran featured along with Julie in Poetry Ireland Review Issue 118: The Rising Generation.
- Tuesday 17 May, 6.30pm
- Books Upstairs, D’Olier St, Dublin
- Tickets: €6/€5
- www.bealtaine.com
Morrissy, right, – my niece, as it happens – was one of several poets taking part in the Poetry Ireland Introductions series at the Irish Writers’ Centre on Tuesday, as part of the International Literature Festival. The other readers included Eamon MacUidhir (who used to be Eddie Maguire, my colleague at the Irish Press, a million years ago!) Simon Lewis, Jennifer Matthews and Michael Naghten Shanks. Julie’s been published in The Honest Ulsterman, The Dalhousie Review and Dear John, among others And she’s just been shortlisted for the Melita Hume Prize – for a full collection by a poet under 35. Julie did a Masters in Creative Writing at UCD and is about to take up a place on the PhD programme at the University of Ulster. Lucky them!
mary morrissy 