The Kilkenny County Council Arts Office is delighted to announce the arrival of the Kilkenny Poetry Broadsheet. This is the 22nd edition of this much-loved publication. An official launch took place during Kilkenny Arts Festival in the Parade Tower, Kilkenny Castle. It was successfully launched by Arts Festival Poet in Residence, Theo Dorgan and Arts Officer, Mary Butler.
The aim of the publication is to give local writers a platform for their work. Being published since 2000, it continues to be a much sought after and treasured platform for writers to expose their work to the public. This year over one hundred poems were submitted by sixty writers for consideration, with fourteen poems being selected for publication.
Poets selected for publication included:
Kim Heffernan, Liam O’ Neill, Janis Woodgate, Karen. S. Moore, Cathy Hogan, Laura O’ Neill, Willie-Joe Meally, Susie Lamb, Noel Howley, Jacinta Cody, Mike Watts, Nuala Roche, Proinsias Ó’ Donnchadha, Billy Fenton.
Writer Elaine Feeney, this year’s editor, had the tough yet enjoyable task of selecting the poems for publication. Elaine lectures at The National University of Ireland, Galway, where she is also a founding member of the Tuam Oral History Project. She has published three poetry collections including The Radio was Gospel & Rise. Feeney wrote the award-winning drama WRoNGHEADED commissioned by the Liz Roche Company. Her novel, As You Were, won the 2021 Dalkey Book Festival’s Emerging Writer Prize, The Kate O’ Brien Prize and The Society of Authors’ McKitterick Prize. It was nominated for Irish Novel of the Year, shortlisted for the Rathbones-Folio Prize and featured in many Best of 2020 lists, including The Telegraph, Sunday Times, Evening Standard, Guardian & Observer. Feeney was chosen by the Observer as a top debut novelist for 2020.
Elaine stated that: It was an honour and a joy to edit this year’s Broadsheet. The selection of poetry moved me in some way, in a distinct aesthetic, a family moment, a snapshot of something frozen in time, family, relationships, love, loss, and all the in-between.
The Broadsheet was beautifully illustrated by Louise Naughton, a designer and illustrator living in Dublin. Louise works on identities, animations and editorial illustration. Louise’s personal artwork is influenced by connecting with and spending time in the habitats of the flora and fauna she brings to life. Through her delicate paintings, she captures the intricate beauty of the natural world.
Please visit louisenaughton.com
Mary Butler, Arts Officer ‘it’s so exciting year on year to see the Broadsheet come to fruition. The Arts Office is delighted to be providing an annual opportunity for established and emerging Kilkenny poets to be published and share their work with audiences new and old’
The Kilkenny Poetry Broadsheet Issue 22 is available free of charge from all Kilkenny Libraries. Click on the images below for a sneak peek, where you can zoom in for details:
For further information on this or other Arts Office projects contact the Arts Office on 056-7794547 or email : deirdre.southey@kilkennycoco.ie
