Podcast available on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Anchor, Breaker, Player FM, Radio Public, OverCast, PocketCast, CastBox, ITunes, Podbean and many more platforms.
This episode aired first on Saturday 24th July 2021. The guests were Susan Richardson, George Sandifer-Smith, Julie Irigaray, Michael Conley and Claire HM, produced and hosted by Damien B. Donnelly. Below are details and links to all the guest stars…
Susan Richardson
Susan Richardson is an award winning, internationally published poet, and the author of “Things My Mother Left Behind” from Potter’s Grove Press. In 2002, she was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa, and in 2010, began writing the blog https://floweringink.wordpress.com/
She lives in Ireland with her husband, two pugs and two cats.
You can find Susan on Twitter https://twitter.com/floweringink
You can also find Susan on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuGPTQc7r6si_oKvk0_baIQ?view_as=subscriber
And Susan is on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/SRFloweringink
George Sandifer- Smith
George Sandifer-Smith is a Welsh writer. His poetry has appeared in various journals and magazines including New Welsh Review, Ink Sweat and Tears, The Stockholm Review, and Black Bough, and numerous anthologies including Poems from Pembrokeshire (Seren Books, 2019) and Hit Points (Broken Sleep Books, 2021). His debut poetry collection Nights Travel at the Right Speed will be published by Infinity Book this year and his pamphlet Empty Trains will be published in 2022 by Broken Sleep Books.
George is on Twitter at https://twitter.com/SandiferSmith
For Infinity Books https://infinitybooksuk.com/books/
For Broken Sleep Books https://www.brokensleepbooks.com/
Julie Irigaray
Julie Irigaray is a French Basque poet dividing her time between the UK and France. Her début pamphlet Whalers, Witches and Gauchos was published by Nine Pens this year. Her poems have appeared internationally (US, UK, Ireland, Mexico, Canada, Singapore and South Korea) in Ambit; Magma; Stand and Mslexia. She was commended in the 2020 Ambit Magazine Poetry Prize; shortlisted for The White Review Poet’s Prize 2019, and selected as one of the 50 Best New British and Irish Poets 2018 (Eyewear Publishing), among other prizes.
Julie is on Twitter at https://twitter.com/IrigarayJulie and Instagram at @IrigarayJulie
Follow Julie at her website https://www.julieirigaray.com/
And on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/people/Julie-Irigaray/100008045718243/
Michael Conley
Michael Conley is a writer and teacher from Manchester. His poetry has appeared in Rialto, Magma, Interpreters House, Butcher’s Dog, Strix, among other magazines. His first pamphlet, ‘Aquarium’ was published in 2015 by Flarestack, and his latest, “These Are Not My Dreams And Anyway Nothing Here Is Purple” is published by Nine Pens. He also writes short stories and flash fiction, and his prose collection, ‘Flare And Falter’, was published by Splice and longlisted for the 2019 Edge Hill Prize.
Michael is on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mickconley
For his pamphlet at Nine Pens Press https://ninepens.co.uk/michael-conley
For his prose collection Flare and Falter at Splice https://www.thisissplice.co.uk/our-titles/phase-1/flare-and-falter/
Claire HM
In 2019 Claire HM had an essay published in the anthology, I Wrote it Anyway, about her experience of accessing university, and the long journey of finding the confidence to write as a woman in her forties from a working class background. How to Bring Him Back, her debut novella set in the seedier side of 90s Birmingham, is a story framed by a spell to let go of the past and will be published by Fly on the Wall press in October 2021. Claire has also written a poetry pamphlet Ask Those Birds that takes the motif of birds, and other winged creatures, to chart a journey of self acceptance through a piecing together of a personal mythology of desire. She hopes to find a publisher for these poems in 2021.
Claire’s poems have most recently been published in Black Flowers Literary Journal, streetcake, Flights, Cape Magazine, Nymphs and Tears in the Fence.
Claire is on Twitter at https://twitter.com/clairehmwriter and on Instagram and Facebook at clairehmwriter
You can follow Claire at her website https://clairehm.com/
To pre-order Claire’s novella at Fly on the Wall Press https://www.flyonthewallpress.co.uk/product-page/how-to-bring-him-back-by-claire-hm
Nine Pens Press
For more about Nine Pens Press, created by Colin Bancroft https://ninepens.co.uk/poets-1
Events Coming Soon
EastSide Arts Festival, Belfast, 5th to 15th August 2021
On 6th August at 7.30pm online, Join Belfast poet Gaynor Kane, as she hosts an event showcasing poets from the Hedgehog Poetry Press, celebrating the connections between them and their homelands of Scotland and Ireland, North and South. You will be entertained by readings from Anne McMaster, Damien B Donnelly, Karen Mooney, Lynn Valentine, Martin Malone, Peter A and Vicky Allen.
Gaynor is east Belfast born and bred, author of three Hedgehog Press publications and co-author of a fourth. Her full collection of poetry ‘Venus in Pink Marble’ was released last September on her fiftieth birthday. Her website is https://gaynorkane.com/
For the Eastside Arts Festival head to their website https://www.eastsidearts.net/
For direct links to Who Needs a Bridge? The Hedgehog Poetry Press Showcase https://www.eastsidearts.net/event/who-needs-bridge-hedgehog-poetry-press-showcase
To follow Gaynor Kane on Twitter https://twitter.com/gaynorkane
Damien B Donnelly, Producer, Host and Poet
Damien B Donnelly returned to Ireland in 2019 after 23 years in Paris, London and Amsterdam, working in the fashion industry as a pattern maker for various brands including Calvin Klein, & Other Stories, Pepe Jeans, Reiss and G-Star. His writing focuses on identity, fragility and connection. His interests revolve around falling over and learning how to get back up while baking delicious cakes. His work had been published in numerous journals online and in print including Black Bough Poetry, Barren Magazine, Anti Hereon Chic, Icefloe Press and The Bangor Literary Journal. His debut poetry pamphlet Eat the Storms, which was featured on the Poetry Book Society Winter List 2020/21 and his Stickleback micro collection Considering Canvases with Boys were both published by The Hedgehog Poetry Press. His next collection with be a conversation pamphlet he co-wrote with fellow Irish poet Eilín de Paor called In the Jitterfritz of Neon. He is currently finishing his first full collection documenting his love affair with Paris called Enough!
He is on Twitter at https://twitter.com/deuxiemepeau and instagram at @damiboy
You can follow him and buy his Eat the Storms debut pamphlet and his Stickleback micro collection at is website https://deuxiemepeaupoetry.com/
Backing music for Eat the Storms is from Purple Planet Royalty Free Music, with thanks…
https://www.purple-planet.com/
You can find us on many platforms including Spotify and here is the link…
Storm Shelter 