02 - 06 August / Lúnasa

The inaugural Fermoy International Poetry Festival will begin on Thursday 02 August and run to Monday 06 August 2012. The town of Fermoy (which is located 35KM north of Cork City and 45 minutes from Cork International Airport) will host a number of events over the five days including poetry workshops, poetry trails, poetry readings, poetry bus tour, live music and book launches.

The Festival is based on the theme of 'Inclusion' and will host a number of poets who write in minority languages including Tsead Brunja, Jan Glass, Louis Mulcahy and Fahredin Shehu. Poets from The Neatherlands, Kosovo, France, England, the USA and Ireland will featured in the various events.

Tsead Bruinja is a Dutch poet who writes both in Frisian and Dutch. He was born in Rinsumageest in 1974 and educated in Groningen, where he studied English language and literature at University. His Frisian debut De wizers yn it read [The meters in the red] was published in 2000. In 2008, he published his fifth collection of Frisian poetry, Angel / Sting. His Dutch poetry collections are Dat het zo horde [The way it should be] (2003), Batterij [Battery] (2004), and Bang voor de bal [Afraid of the ball] (2007). Dat het zo hoorde was nominated for the Jo Peters Poetry Prize. Translations of his work have been published in several international magazines, such as Atlas (India/UK), Action Poétique (France), Mantis (USA) and Mentor (Slovenia). Tsead performs his work widely and lives in Amsterdam. In 2008 he was nominated to become the Poet Laureate of the Netherlands. Tsead will lecture and read from his collections at the Fermoy International Poetry Festival @ 8pm on Saturday 03 August 2012, Venue: The Grand Hotel, Ashe Quay, Fermoy.

Noel King is a poet, writer, actor and musician, and a native of Tralee, Co. Kerry, Ireland. His poetry, haiku, short stories, articles and reviews have appeared in publications in over thirty countries, the poetry in journals as diverse as Poetry Ireland Review, The Sunday Tribune, Bongos of the World (Japan), The Dalhousie University Review (Canada), Kotaz (South Africa), Poetry Salzburg Review (Austria) and Quadrant (Australia). Along the way he has been a singer with the famous Bunratty Castle Entertainers and has worked as an arts administrator and poetry editor.

Louis Mulcahy was born in 1941, reared in Wexford, moved to Limerick in 1953, to Dublin in 1963 and to Dingle, Co. Kerry in 1975. He is the artist-craftsman, behind the celebrated Potadóireacht na Caolóige near Dingle. His poetry has been accepted for publication in many anthologies including The Stinging Fly, Stony Thursday, Boyne Berries and Revival and read on RTE1 and Lyric Radio. Multiple selections of his poems have appeared in five collections. He got to a short list of five for the Collection of Poems competition at Listowel in 2008 and again in 2010. He was the Hartnett Viva Voce Winner in the 'Hartnett Poetry Competition’ at the Éigse Michael Hartnett in 2010. He is the Director of Féile Bheag Filíochta and holds an Honorary Doctorate from the National University of Ireland in recognition of his artistry his support of local culture including the Irish language. His first solo collection is being published in 2012 by An Sagart Publishing.

Mary Noonan is from Fermoy, Co. Cork and is a poet and a lecturer in French at University College Cork, where she teaches modern and contemporary French theatre and theories of performance. She has published widely in the field of contemporary French theatre. Mary's poems have been published in The Dark Horse, The SHOp, The Stinging Fly, Wasafiri, Tears in the Fence, Cyphers, Southword, The Moth, The Echo Room, The Cork Literary Review, Penned: Zoo Poems (2009), The Alhambra Poetry Calendar (2010), Best Irish Poetry 2010, The Captain’s Tower: Seventy Poems for Bob Dylan at Seventy (2010), in the on-line magazines Blackbox Manifold and BigCityLit and at the on-line archivefishousepoems.org. She was awarded the Listowel Poetry Collection Prize in June 2010. Her first collection of poems - The Fado House will be published by Dedalus Press (Dublin) in 2012 and Mary will be reading from this collection on 04 August 2012 at the Fermoy International Poetry Festival.

Niall O'Connor is a published poet and blogger, who has been published at home and abroad, in print and electronic, and reads regularly at the Writer's Centre in Dublin. O'Connor's poems have been published in The Examiner and most recently in The Stoney Thursday Book, thefirstcut#, A handful of Stones, Carty’s Poetry Journal, Madrush, Outburst, Corvus and others. He hopes to be remembered as a poet and writer, rather than a nice guy, but so far it is pretty much 50 /50. Niall left Fermoy in the seventies, but still draws on the landscape of his youth for inspiration. He blogs at the very popular dublinepost.blogspot.ie

“We are invited into a world where humans live in intimate contact with the earth, sea, and sky—where the elemental and its ancient mysteries and deep truths take precedence over the ego-based jockeying and maneuvering of cities.” (ConnotationPress.com | A Note From Kaitlin Hillenbrand - Poetry Editor.)

Matthew Sweeney was born in Donegal, Ireland in 1952. He moved to London in 1973 and studied at the Polytechnic of North London and the University of Freiburg. His poetry collections include A Dream of Maps (1981), A Round House (1983), Blue Shoes (1989), Cacti (1992), The Bridal Suite (1997) shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, A Smell of Fish (2000) shortlisted for Best Collection in the Forward Prizes for Poetry, Selected Poems (2002), Sanctuary (2004). His most recent book is Black Moon (2007), shortlisted for both the T.S. Eliot Prize, and the Irish Times Poetry Now Prize. He won a Cholmondeley Award in 1987 and an Arts Council Writers’ Award in 1999. He has also published poetry for children, collections including The Flying Spring Onion (1992), Fatso in the Red Suit (1995) and Up on the Roof: New and Selected Poems (2001). His novels for children include The Snow Vulture (1992) and Fox (2002).

Fahredin Shehu was born in Rahovec, in South East of Kosova in 1972. And graduated at Prishtina University, Oriental Studies. M.A. in Literature and a PhD in Sacral Esthetics (ongoing). He actively works on Calligraphy discovering new mediums and techniques for a specific form of plastic art and is a Certified expert in Andragogy/ Capacity Building, Training delivery, Coaching and Mentoring, Facilitating. In the last ten years Fahredin operated as an Independent Scientific Researcher in the field of World Spiritual Heritage and Sacral Esthetics. He poetry is widly published as follows: NUN - collection of mystical poems, 1996; INVISIBLE PLURALITY - Poetical prose, 2000; NEKTARINA- Novel, Transcendental Epic, 2004, publishing House, Rozafa Prishtinë- project of Ministry of Culture Sport and Youth of Kosova; ELEMENTAL 99 - Short poetical mystical stories, 2006, Center for positive thinking, Prishinë; KUN - collection of transcendental lyrics, 2007, Publishing House LOGOS-A,Skopje,Macedonia; DISMANTLE OF HATE, E-book 2010, Ronin Press, London; CRYSTALINE ECHOES, Poetry, Hard copy and e-book 2011, CorposEditora - Porto,Portugal; PLEROMA’S DEW, Poem, Hard copy and Kindle/ Amazon Edition, 2012 Inner Child Press, New York, USA;EMERALD MACADAM, Essays, Columns, Opinions, Presentations, Academic papers on Culture, Art, Spirituality, 2012, Positive Initiative, Prishtina, Kosovo.

Jan Glass was born in 1958 and lives in the city of Groningen and writes poetry in his native language Gronings and in Dutch. He is Chief Editor of Krödde; the longest existing and only literary magazine in the Groningen language. Gronings is part of the Low Saxon language, Low Saxon is spoken in the eastern part of the Netherlands and the northern part of Germany. Jan has published four books of poems. Three in Gronings and one in Dutch (with English translations). He translated Rilke in Gronings. His collected Groninger poems and translations, with new poems added, will be published in 2012. He received several literary prizes: The (German) Freudenthal Prize for new literature in the Low Saxon language, the Literary Prize of ´Grunneger Bouk´ and the Belcampo Scholarship; the literary award of the Province of Groningen. He was co-editor of three anthologies of poems in the Groningen language. Glas frequently performs, reading his poetry, mostly in the Lower Saxon part of the Netherlands and Germany. In 2010 he was invited to read his Low Saxon poetry in Istanbul. With the jazz group Glas, Scheele & Lass Jan Glas sings American Jazz Standards translated in Gronings. They presented their first album ‘Diezeg Laand’ in 2010. Jan Glas performed his Dutch poetry at the literairy festival ´Wintertuin´ in Nijmegen and at the ´Dunya Festival´ this year in Rotterdam. In october 2012 a book of (Dutch) poems will be published.

Michèle Vassal is French, but moved to Ireland at the age of seventeen. She remained in the country for another 30 years. Her two poetry collections 'Sandgames' and 'A Taste For Hemlock' are published by Salmon Poetry. 'Sandgames' won The First Collection Prizeat Listowel Writers' Week and her poems have been short-listed for the Hennessy / Sunday Tribune Awards. She has been widely published internationally, in both French and English. Michèle currently lives in the South-West of France with her 4 cats, an enormous dog called Dougal and "him indoors" - her harping, piping, yogi of a husband. She divides her time between writing and creating an environmentally friendly homestead. Reviews of 'A Taste for Hemlock' - "Sharp, clever, funny, wonderfully evocative and with more hard-won wisdom than most, this is one of the 2011’s best collections of poetry". Alan Garvey - Gloom Cupboard. "By far the best and most challenging collection of poems by a woman poet issued in 2011 is Michele Vassal's 'A Taste For Hemlock,' (Salmon Poetry) with a cover by the author. Here is a European sensibility charging through the conventional staidness of much Irish contemporary work". Fred Johnson - Western Writer’s Center.

Kim Moore won an Eric Gregory Award and the Geoffrey Dearmer Prize in 2011 and graduated with an MA (Distinction) in Creative Writing from Manchester Metropolitan University in 2012. Her first pamphlet 'If We Could Speak Like Wolves' was a prize winner in the 2012 Poetry Business Pamphlet Competition, judged by Carol Ann Duffy, and was subsequently published in May 2012. She has been published in magazines including Poetry Review, Poetry London, The Rialto and The TLS and blogs atwww.kimmoorepoet.wordpress.com

Mary Mullen was born in Anchorage, Alaska in 1952. Her first collection of poetry - 'Zephyr', was published by Salmon Poetry in 2010. Her poetry and non-fiction have been published in The Stinging Fly, Cork Literary Review, Cirque, Sunday Miscellany, We Alaskans, Down Syndrome Ireland, Irish Times, Landing Places: Immigrant Poets in Ireland by Dedalus Press, Dogs Singing: a tribute anthology by Salmon Poetry, Crannog and other literary publications. She received a letter of commendation from the Patrick Kavanaugh Award, 2009. Mary teaches memoir classes in Co. Galway and facilitates workshops. She has lived in Ballinderreen, Co. Galway since 1996 with her Galway girl, Lily.

Mick Corrigan has been writing for two years and has been published in a range of periodicals and on-line journals . He is in his fifties (at least he thinks they’re his fifties, they could be someone else’s), and lives in County Kildare with Trish his lifer, Molly the talking wonder dog and Bandit the gin drinking dowager cat. He likes a well-made porkpie hat and regularly has ideas above his station.

Bradley R. Strahan is from New England, USA and lives in Co. Cork, he has taught poetry at Georgetown University and at the University of Texas. He was Fulbright Professor of Poetry & American Culture in University of Saints Cyril and Methodius, Skopje, Macedonia. For over 30 years Bradley has been editor/publisher of Visions-International and has five books of poetry & over 500 poems published in: America, Seattle Rev., Confrontation, The Hollins Critic, Soundings East, Poet Lore, & anthologies: 2003 Struga Festival anthology, Blood to Remember. And has also had several Fellowships over the past few years including at the University in Leuven, Belgium. Books of poetry including: Poems (1982), Crocodile Man (1988), Love Songs for an Age of Anxiety (1981 and 1989), It’s Only Rock & Roll (1999), This Art of Losing (2011). He is a recipient of many poetry awards & has many published poems & translations in anthologies & journals: Apostrophe, Blood to Remember,Seattle Rev., Wisconsin Rev., Main St. Rag, Southern Calif. Anthology, America, Hollins Critic, Folio, The Dallas Rev., Connecticut Rev., Free Inquiry, Borderlands, Crab Creek Rev., Phoebe, Christian Century, Rattapallax, Colere, Poet Lore, The Kerf, Sundog, Poetry Australia Anthology, the Salmon (Ireland), Tribune andOrbis (U.K.), The Seventh Quarry (Wales), Midstream, Onthebus, First Things, 580 Split, Virginia Magazine, Confrontation, Cross Currents, Christian Science Monitor, Steam Ticket, Gargoyle, Illuminations, RiverSedge, Struga Poetry Evenings Anthology, Yuan Yang (Hong Kong), Sources (Belgium), etc. Have been translated into: Dutch, French, Korean, Icelandic, Serbian, Macedonian, etc..

Gene Barry is a Cork poet teaching poetry in secondary schools and libraries in North Cork. He has read widely in Ireland and in Britain, Holland and Australia. As a practicing psychotherapist he uses poetry as an art therapy in schools and hospitals. Gene runs the Elbow Lane Poetry bi-weekly poetry event and is chairman and founder of the Fermoy International Poetry Festival. He has been published widely and had a chapbook launched by Rebel Poetry in 2008 called No Family Tree. His poems have appeared inStony Thursday collections, numerous editions of Revival, The Ranfurly Review, Under the Radar, Euphony, The University of Chicago, The Irish Examiner, Ciphers, Dark Stream and numerous other publications. Gene was twice Poet of the Week in the Poetry Super Highway. His first full collection will be published by Doghouse Books in 2013. Gene was editor of Silent Voices, an anthology of poetry by asylum seekers and editor of Remembering the Present an anthology published in 2012.