Drinking Rum on the Shore by Fahredin Shehu on Every Writers Source

http://www.everywritersresource.com/poemeveryday/
Every Writers Source

ANTI- PALINDROME

Mere is the moment when

a blink of an eye captures

a prosaic move of the sunset and

my poetry still wanders

between East and West- where

the race of the politicians is

clever than scientists and

the silicon udders are exposed more

than a Nobel Prize Winner.

The rage of productivity is far more

valuable than of creativity

of the Prodigious

If they ask you about the Poet say:

“We killed him long before the full moon

And felt the pleasure of the silky touch of the bride”.

If they ask you about the Scientist

Say:- but say the truth;

“We put him in a cellar

To do a rat’s job for us- long before

Hail has destroyed the harvest”...

and if they ask you about the Sage

say:- and laugh- only thus you expose

Your real being and Certitude

say: “We delivered his corpse up to the mountains

and offered to the vultures to chop his flesh.

When the Sun hit its rays to the remnant bones,

the mild wind shall blow the ashes

Then nobody shall be touched by

the disease of Loving-he was spreading

in the spring air and affect the one in Love-

Passion”

 © Fahredin Shehu 

Sawt Arnaout- O Human by Fahredin Shehu, official Launch of Radio Voice of Arnaout in Beirut, Lebanon

Sawt Arnaout Official Openning Radio Voice of Arnaout- Beirut, Lebanon

From the Urban Sufi Laments
Fahredin Shehu

Manat e Shehut, nga Alfred Beka, Gazeta Express, 23 tetor 2012

Shkrimtari kosovar Fahredin Shehu sapo ka nxjerrë nga shtypi romanin e tij të ri, të titulluar ‘Manat’. Romani pasqyron jetën në Kosovën e pasluftës dhe trajton çështje të natyrës ekzistenciale në këtë periudhë të historisë sonë të re.

Edhe pse më shumë njihet si poet, Fahredin Shehu, sapo ka nxjerrë nga shtypi romanin e tij të dytë - pas atij ‘Nektarina’, të vitit 2004. Romani i tij i ri është titulluar ‘Manat’, dhe pasqyron jetën në Prishtinë e Prizren, në Kosovën e pasluftës, gjegjësisht, trajton çështje të natyrës ekzistenciale në këtë periudhë të historisë sonë të re. Në roman është vënë në pah edhe elementi dhe ambienti mistik, i cili kohabiton si subkulturë e shoqërisë kosovare.

“Nuk mungojnë as përshkrimet e shkollës pitagoreane dhe të traditës çifute. Për herë të parë në gjuhën shqipe flitet për shkollat mistike, Sarmouni dhe Eneagramet, të cilat në Perëndim i ka sjell Gurdijjeff”, tregon Shehu për Express.

Në romanin e ri të Shehut, i cili ka jo më shumë se 120 faqe, paraqiten edhe korrespondencat mes kulturave sufi dhe çifute. Shehu thotë se është një roman interesant, i cili do të zgjojë kureshtjen e njerëzve të etshëm për dije. E, në aspektin tematik, romani është jonkonvencional, edhe pse s’janë lënë anash as përditshmëria dhe çështjet ekzistenciale të popullatës në Kosovën e pasluftës.

Sa i përket titullit të romanit, Shehu thotë se manat janë pemë të çuditshme, sepse bien sapo të piqet fryti.

“Edhe në këtë roman, personazhi kryesor vdes, jo si viktimë e luftës, por me pjekuri shpirtërore. Dija për vdekjen i paraprinë kësaj vdekjeje”, thotë ai.

Shehu njihet si shkrimtar që në veprat e veta, qoftë në poezi apo në prozë, i inkorporon elementet e mistikes. Sipas tij, edhe në këtë roman elementi transcendental/mistik është shumë i pranishëm, posaçërisht në fund të veprës.

Për herë të parë në letërsinë shqipe, nëpërmjet këtij romani, lexuesi ka mundësi që të njihet me kulturën asiriane dhe me këshillat e antikës, të cilat janë sjellë në kohën tonë, megjithëse nuk ndryshojnë në kontekstin human, por mbeten valide edhe sot.

Shehu është një prej shkrimtarëve më të përkthyer nga Kosova. Libri që në mars të këtij viti u botua në New York, në gjuhën angleze, “Pleroma’s dew”, është përkthyer edhe në gjuhën turke dhe në atë arabe. Shehu tregon se po pret edhe versionet në gjuhën frënge dhe persishte. Ndërkaq, sa i përket romanit të fundit, ende nuk ka ndonjë ofertë konkrete.

Shehu është edhe njëri prej shkrimtarëve të rrallë kosovar që merr pjesë në festivale të shumta ndërkombëtare të poezisë. Ai e veçon festivalin Nisan, i cili mbahet në Nazareth, në Izrael, ku thotë se ka pasur një pritje të jashtëzakonshme.

“Kujtoj se jam i pari, dhe i vetmi kosovar që ka marrë pjesë në këtë festival, që është mbajtur për të 13’ën herë me radhë. Ne jemi një popull i vogël, dhe me një gjuhë është e njohur nga pak kush, por pritja e vargut shqip ka qenë në nivel shumë të lartë”, shprehet Shehu.

Ai tregon se, bashkë me poetë nga Ballkani dhe Euro-Azia, nga data 7 e deri më 11 dhjetor do të marrë pjesë në Kongresin Letrar në Izmir (Turqi), ku do të ketë takime letrare dhe një konferencë, në të cilën do të debatohet për poezinë dhe për gjendjen e letërsive përkatëse nga përfaqësuesit e shteteve mysafire, si Sllovenia, Kroacia, Maqedonia, Shqipëria, Azerbajxhani, Irani, por edhe nga autorët që vijnë nga Qiproja e deri te Australia e largët.

http://lajme.shqiperia.com/lajme/artikull/iden/1047299718/titulli/Manat-e-Shehut

http://www.gazetaexpress.com/repository/docs/23.10.12_991421.pdf

 

MANAT, Roman nga Fahredin Shehu, Shtepia Botuese LOGOS-A, Shkup, Maqedoni, 2012- MULBERRIES a novel by Fahredin Shehu, Publishing House LOGOS-A, Skopje, Macedonia, 2012

2. DHOMA E MURSHIDIT/ GJATË DITËS

MURSHIDI, 79 Vjeçar years Sufi shqiptar, i veshur me pizhame, endet nëpër dhomën e plot me dorëshkrimet e vjetra osmane, pemë të thara, paisje shkrimi dhe tapiseria e zhelosur e varrur ne mur me motive nga shkretëtira. Ai e ndjen qilimin dhe rrënqethet deri në qimen enë maje të kresë derisa ec i zbathur vetëm në këmbën e majtë. MË shumë se 9 ditë ai nuk pranoi asnjë mysafirë të llojit njerëzor përpos ELIFIIT, të birit të tij më të madh, i cili e trasjton në mënyrë engjëllore.  ELIFI, një njeri i veshur mirë dhe i edukuar me gjentilitet femëror, hyn në dhomë duke sjellur puhinë e shpresës plakut të dergjur.

ELIFI

Baba. Unë, unë thjesht nyuk mund t’i rrefuzoj njerëzit që të të vizitojnë, pasi që e kuptuan se je duke vuajtur nje kohë të gjatë. Kjo nuk është mënyrë me iu shmang njerëzve. Ti mirë e di sa i respektuar je këtu. Dhe gjithashtu e di sa të nderuar do të ishin ata duke të vizituar dhe ndjerë prezencën tënde. Ti ke shërbyer me vite. Unë thjesht habitem si mundesh…

MURSHIDI

Ndoshta ke pritur që të bërtasnë ty ashtu si bëja që nga fillimi kur e kuptove vetvetën. Jo i dashuri im…ti duhet të kuptosh qetësinë time. Ti gjithashtu duhet t’u tregosh ithtarëve se dua të vdes me dinjitet duke u përballur me Të Gjithëpranishmin, dhe pendohem për të gjitha mëkatet e mia.

ELIFI

Ti po flet për mëkate? Joooooo të lutem mos e thuaj këtë. Ti më mësove se të gjithë do të përballemi me vdekjen dhe jam shumë I bindur. Por…

MURSHIDI

Çka…S’ka por…

ELIFI

Por, baba… pasi që patëm përvojë të keqe gjatë luftës dhe falënmderojmëe Zotin jemi të gjallë, tani duhet të mendojmë dhe veprojmë kah e ardhmja.

MURSHIDI

A po më jep lekcione? Pse e gjithë kjo arrogancë?  Si guxon? Ti ke harruar edukimin tim. Kjo nuk është e aplikueshme për të gjithë.

ELIFI

Baba, çka desha të them është se vdekja është larg teje. Ti dukesh i kthjellët dhe i fortë.

MURSHIDI

Secila kodër e ka peshën e vetë, unë e kam timen prandaj u bën me dije ithtarëve të mi që ta kuptojnë këtë dhe të më lejojnë ta mbaj këtë peshë. 

  

(ELIFI ulet në divan, duke e vështruar babën e vet derisa kokërllokët e tij luajnë në lotë).

MURSHIDI

Ti kurrënuk do të rritesh biri im. Tash po e kuptoj sa kam humbur kohe duke të ushtruar në rrugën shpirtërore.

ELIFI

Sa herë të kam patrë ty baba duke qarë? Ti më mësove … mani bie nën man e asnjëherë nën pemën e pjeshkës.

MURSHIDI

Gjatë lutjeve të gjata të netëve të gjata shumë lotë kam derdhur. Kjo është e vërtetë. Ti duhet ta mësosh dallimin. Ti po qan për trupin tim që do të kalbet. Por unë kam qarë për mëkatet e mia.

ELIFI

Prap mëkatet. Çka bëre ti që ishte kundër vullnetit të Perendisë? E di ti nuk mund ta thuash, sepse nuk ka asgjë që mund të krahasohet me atë çka bën injoranti botëror.

MURSHIDI

Kujt po i flas unë. Unë të thash se nëse për një punëtor normal puna ditorëe është 8 orë, për ne është 24 orë. A po më kupton? Nëse për një student një lekcion për një ditë, për ne është krejt libri. Kurrë mos e harro këtë. Tani shko në Teqe dhe thuaji ithtarëve se mjeshtrit i duhet Qetësia që ta përgatis vetën për nje vdekje me nder.

ELIFI, del nga dhoma me fytyrën e lagur nga lotët dhe gjakun e rëndë në vena duke ecur me vështirësi. Ai kupton se kjo nuk është faza e Qetësisë ose tërheqje ose diçka e ngjashme.

MURSHIDI ulur në divan duke e nxehur trupin e tij në vendin ku i biri i tij ulej para disa minutave. Ai hap kutin prej druri ku ai mbante dis agjëra personale dhe asnjëherë nukishte I shkëputur prej tyre..

Si e përkujton fëmijërinë e tij papritmas fillon ta flas me zërin normal ashtu si flet me ELIFIN,ai merr një rule të vogël pergameni. Nuk është talisman, as këngë dashurie për gruan e tij të dashur.

English

2. MURSHID’S ROOM/ DAYTIMES

MURSHID, an 79 years old Albanian ill Sufi, wearing pyjamas, wanders in a room full of old ottoman manuscripts, dried fruits, a writing paraphernalia, and crumbled tapestry with the motives of desert on the wall. He feels the rug and thrilled till the top hair as he walks barefooted only on the left foot. More than 9 days he did not receive any guest of a mankind except ELIF his oldest son, who treats him angelically.  ELIF, a well-dressed polite man with a feminine gentility, enters the room bringing a breeze of hope to a bewildered senile.

ELIF

Father. Well, I simply can’t refuse people to visit you, as they understood that you’ve been suffering for quite a while. This is not a way to avoid people. You know how much respectable you are here. And you also know how honored they might be by visiting and feeling your presence. You served for ages. I simply wander how can you ?…

MURSHID

Maybe you expect to shout on you as I did from the beginning you realize about your self. No, my beloved…you have to understand my Silentium. You must also tell to proponents that I want to die with dignity facing Ubiquitous, and repent for all of my sins.

ELIF

You are talking about sins? Noooooo please don’t say that. You taught me that we’ll all face death and I’m dully convinced. But…

MURSHID

What…No but…

ELIF

But, father… since we had had terrible experience during the war and thanks God we are alive, now we must think and act toward future.

MURSHID

Are you giving me lessons? What is all this arrogance?  How dare you? You forgot my training. This is not applicable to all.

ELIF

Father, what I wanted to say is that death is far from you. You look very bright and strong.

MURSHID

Every mountain has its own weight, I have mine so let my followers know this and leave me to hold this weight. 

  

(ELIF sits in a sofa, observing his father while his eyeballs playing in tears).

MURSHID

You’ll never grow up my son. Now I see how much I wasted my time training you in spiritual practices.

ELIF

How many times I saw you crying father? You taught me … a mulberry falls under the mulberry tree and never under peachtree.

MURSHID

During long nights prayers many tears I have shed. That is true. You should learn the difference. You are crying for my perishable body. But I cried for my sins.

ELIF

Sins again?!. What have you done that was opposite to God’s wish? I know you can’t tell, as there’s nothing in comparison with what a mundane ignorant is doing.

MURSHID

To whom I’m talking. I told you if for a normal servant a workload are 8 hours for as is 24. You understand? If for a normal student one lesson per day for us it’s the entire book. Don’t you ever forget this? Now go back in a shrine and tell followers that the master needs a tranquility and to prepare himself for an honored death.

ELIF, exits the room with a wet face and a heavy blood in veins hardly walking. He realized that this is not a tranquility phase of retreat or something similar.

MURSHID sits in a sofa warming his body in a place where his son sat few minutes ago. He opens a wooden box where he kept few very personal objects and was never detached from them.

As he recalls his childhood and all of sudden starts to speak in a normal voice as he speaks with ELIF, he took the little parchment scroll. It’s not a talisman, neither is  a love poem for his beloved wife.

ACUARELA LITERARIA VIRTUAL Nº 5

Revista Acuarela Literaria

lunes, 10 de septiembre de 2012

ACUARELA LITERARIA VIRTUAL Nº 5

En esta oportunidad engalanamos la portada de esta edición  con una obra titulada: BAILARINAS.

Perteneciente a  la destacada  Artista Plástica  del Sudeste Cordobés: MERCEDES MORLACHETTI  oriunda de la ciudad deMonte Buey

http://www.acuarelaliterariavirtual.blogspot.com/

IRIS                       

Fortieth May unveils

the dews in grass leafs and

                       

the green swords of Iris flowers

opened as Mercy came down from heaven

I told you man

You can't learn Poetry from Human

it's God's gift and it drops from His Mercy

I sung the quatrain of the Sun

on the day of Marriage

                       

Destiny; the Bride

Wisdom; the Groom

Love is the witness

I bear no shade and bring

the stalactites  of my being

                       

from the upper spheres

to please your aromatic hearts

my sweet flower

Fahredin Shehu –Prishtina-Kosovo

 BASMATI 

How many beans I swallowed

Bearing carved posts

Those

White pigeons that have not delivered?

Messages bearing codes for the new generation

Something cooked

A white mist evaporated

Fragrance of basmati

My stomach will boycott the reason

It is time to dissolve the hibernation

It's time to love

To do

To just do it

And be less

 

 

___________________________

 

 

 

In the original language:

 

BASMATI

 

Fahredin Shehu

 

 

Combien de grains ai-je avalés

Portant des messages Graves

Ceux

N'ont pas que les blancs pigeons can livrer?

Des messages portant des codes pour la nouvelle génération

Quelque chose de cuit

Une vapeur blanche évaporée

Odeur de basmati

Mon estomac boycotte en raison

Il est temps de disperser the léthargie

Il est temps d'aimer

De le faire

Simplement de le faire

Et défaillir

Translated from the French by Gabriella Montanari.

---

 
Fahredin Shehu was born in Rahovec in Kosovo in 1972. He graduated in Oriental Studies at the University of Pristina, with a Masters in Literature. Currently dedicated to calligraphy, with the aim of developing new media and new techniques for this particular form of art. 


http://www.sagarana.net/anteprima.php?quale=555

Fermoy International Poetry Festival 2012

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.

Source: http://www.fermoypoetryfestival.com/Fermoy-Poetry-Festival-Guest-Poets-biographies-.html