We had a great crowd for our annual big night of poetry on Sat 5th Aug.
This year we were honoured and delighted to be presenting as Poet-in-Residence, West Cork-born, multi-award winning poet, Michael McCarthy.
Michael hosted a very successful and well-attended poetry workshop on the previous day in Working Artist Studios.
Other special guests included Listowel writers’ Week 2017 winners, Alyn Fenn and Jackie Gorman along with several other poets during a lively an open mic session, including Afric McGlinchey, Michael Ray, John Riordan and others. There was also music, provided by Moze Jacobs and Paul Ó Colmáin.
Michael McCarthy grew up on a farm in West Cork, Ireland.
His first poetry collection Birds’ Nests and Other Poems won the Patrick Kavanagh Award. His second collection – ‘At the Races’ (Smith/Doorstop, 2009) – was the overall winner of the 2008 Book & Pamphlet Competition, chosen by Michael Longley. His most recent collection ‘The Healing station’ (Smith/Doorstop, 2015) was Hilary Mantel’s choice in The Guardian Best Books of 2015. Anne Enright described it as ‘Life at its most challenging made beautiful on the page.’
His children’s books have been translated into seventeen languages.
He works as a priest in North Yorkshire.