Poetry: Ireland and Irishness

Tom Cleary is an Irish poet who lives in Hebden Bridge. When he retired after teaching for many years in secondary schools in England, he started to write poetry. In 2011 he won a poetry competition organised by Writers Forum and HappenStance; his prize was the publication in August 2014 of his pamphlet, ‘The Third Miss Keane’. In 2015, he won a Northern Writers’ Award as one of six New North Poets. In 2016, one of his poems, ‘Black’, was longlisted in the National Poetry Competition.

Writer and poetry event organiser , Anthony Costello resides in the Calder Valley, West Yorkshire. His degree and masters were literature and philosophy based and completed while living in London, eventually obtaining a PGCE in English and History.

Former homelessness worker Ian Duhig has won the National Poetry Competition twice and his most recent book, The Blind Roadmaker, was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize, as well as being one of the Yorkshire Post’s Yorkshire Books of the Year. He is currently involved with organising poetry workshops with the David Oluwale Memorial Association.

Photo by Paul Madern

John McAuliffe is an Irish poet. His fourth book, ‘The Way In’, was published in 2015 by The Gallery Press, as were ‘Of All Places’ (2011), which was a PBS Recommendation, ‘Next Door’ (2007) and ‘A Better Life’ (2002), which was shortlisted for a Forward prize. He co-directs the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester where he teaches poetry and co-edits ‘The Manchester Review’. He also writes a monthly poetry column for the ‘Irish Times’.

Kim Moore’s first full-length collection ‘The Art of Falling’ was published by Seren in 2015. A poem from the book was shortlisted for the Forward Prize. She won a Northern Promise Award in 2014 and plays trumpet in a ten-piece soul band called The Soul Survivors.

Raised in Clonmel, Ireland, Natalie has been writing since her school days where she won the Young Cuisle national poetry competition, before going on to study an MA in creative writing at University of Manchester. She has worked as a primary school teacher, a bibliotherapy facilitator and a copywriter, and currently lives in Bradford working as a communications officer.

Peter Riley recently retired to Hebden Bridge. He has been a teacher, lecturer, bookseller, bus conductor, and a few other things. He is the author of fifteen books of poetry, and some of prose concerning travel and music. His most recent books are ‘The Glacial Stairway’ (Carcanet 2011) and a book-length poem, ‘Due North’ (Shearsman 2015), which was shortlisted for the Forward Best Collection Prize in 2015.