The Kilkenny County Council Arts Office is delighted to announce the publication of its 23rd issue of the ever-popular Kilkenny Poetry Broadsheet. The aim of the publication is to give local writers a platform for their work. Being published since 2002, it continues to be a much sought after and well-loved platform for writers to expose their work to the public.
The Broadsheet was successfully launched during the Arts Festival, in the Parade Tower by Poet in Residence for the Kilkenny Arts Festival, Kwame Dawes, Broadsheet editor and poet, Afric McGlinchey and Arts Officer, Mary Butler.
This year over one hundred poems were submitted by fifty-eight poets for consideration, with twelve poems by twelve poets selected.
Poets selected for publication included:
Noel Howley, Canice Kenealy, Mia King, Alice Bennett, Darren Caffrey, Nuala Roche, Mike Watss, Breda Joyce, Anne Mac Darby Beck, Paddy Doyle, Eamonn Donovan and Emily Murtagh.
Poet Afric McGlinchey was this year’s editor and she had the tough yet enjoyable task of selecting poems for publication. Afric stated that, each of the 105 poems she received offered its own unique expression of the human spirit. There were poems about the small things that make life magical: trees and pigs and birds and flowers and bogs, about individual moments. She was heart-warmed by poems describing familial relationships, particularly elegies to fathers and grandfathers and she was glad to see poems written in the Irish language too.
Mary Butler, Arts Officer was ‘delighted with the launch of the Broadsheet and it continues to be a beloved annual event by participants and audiences alike. We were delighted to have Kwame Dawes and Afric with us to launch the publication and its always a pleasure to hear each poet recite their poem’
The Kilkenny Poetry Broadsheet Issue 23 is available free of charge from the libraries across the county and you can also call the Poetry Phone on FREE PHONE 1800 272 994 to hear the poems recited. For further information on each poet please visit our blog post: https://kilkennyartsoffice.ie/poetry-phone-2023-broadsheet-poems/
You can view a digital copy here:
Poetry-Broadsheet-2023-Digital-Ready
For further information on this or other Arts Office projects contact the Arts Office on 056-7794547 or email deirdre.southey@kilkennycoco.ie
