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This episode aired first on Saturday 9th October 2021. The guests were Megha Sood, Paul Adam Short, Theresa Donnelly, James Nguyen and Elizabeth M Castillio, produced and hosted by Damien B. Donnelly. Below are details and links to all the guest stars…

Megha Sood

Megha Sood is a Pushcart Nominated Award-Winning Poet, Editor, Author, and Literary Activist based in New Jersey, USA. She is a Poetry Editor at MookyChick(UK), Life and Legends (USA), and Literary Partner in the project “Life in Quarantine” with Stanford University, USA. Works featured in journals, including Poetry Society of New York, American Writers Review, Kissing Dynamite, Rising Phoenix Review, and many more. Author of Chapbook ( “My Body is Not an Apology”, Finishing Line Press, 2021) and Full Length (“My Body Lives Like a Threat”, Flower Song Press, 2021).Recipient of Poet Fellowship 2021 MVICW (Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing), National Level Winner Spring Mahogany Lit Prize, and Three-Time State-level winner of NJ Poetry Contest.

Megha is on Twitter at  https://twitter.com/Meghasood16  and Instagram at @meghasworld16

Follow Megha at her website https://meghasworldsite.wordpress.com/

For her chapbook at Finishing Line Press go to https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/my-body-is-not-an-apology-by-megha-sood/

More information about Megha at Poets & Writers  https://www.pw.org/directory/writers/megha_sood

Find Megha on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/megha.rani.10

Paul Adam Short

Paul Adam Short lives in Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK. The North East of England is a major influence on Paul’s writing, especially the multitude of varying landscapes, history, culture and industrial working-class heritage. Paul has been published online in Stymie Magazine, The Daily Drunk Mag, Dark Poets Club and won the April 2021 ‘Press 53’ 53-Word Story Contest. He’s currently working on a few projects including a chapbook based on growing up in Northumberland and a crime novel.

Paul is on Twitter at https://twitter.com/PaulWritesPoems

Follow Paul at his website https://paulwritespoems.com/

James Nguyen

James Nguyen is a serial entrepreneur who has previously been featured across CNBC, Sky, ABC and been a contributing writer on Forbes. In JQN, James is able to distil his experience and lessons about life and business through the beauty of spoken word poetry. His topics range from truths about life, love, and spirituality; while he expounds on first principles from business and entrepreneurship in a collection of poems as well.

Find out more about James at his website https://www.jqnstudios.com/

James is on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyK5yqnb3SRCVq95fc6OTlw

And follow him on Instagram at @jqnstudios

Theresa Donnelly

Theresa Donnelly is an Irish/Canadian poet was born and educated in Dublin. She attended the Richemont Cookery School in Luzern, Switzerland; worked in hospitality and culinary management. She is also a qualified Makeup Artist who has dabbled in interior design and antique collecting. Living abroad in a variety of countries enabled her to become socially involved in their communities. These experiences are reflected in her poetry. Her work has been published with Beret Days Press , The Copperfield Review, Verse Fire, Buried Horror, Red Claw Press, The Brooklyn Towncrier, Surfacing Magazine, UCD Library Poems for the Pandemic, The Caterpillar Magazine , Tales from the Forest, Dreich, Black Bough Poetry and she is a regular contributor to Poetry Ireland, Poetry Prompts. She is a founding member of The Brooklin Poetry Society and a member of The Ontario Poetry Society. She is the author of Moon Witch and Reoccurrence of Blue, presently working on the second collection for adults and fairy tale poems for children. Up until the pandemic, she was spending her time equally between Waterville, County Kerry and Brooklin, Ontario.

Theresa is on Twitter at https://twitter.com/TheresaWriter

Find out more about her work at her website https://theresadonnelly.com/

Elizabeth M Castillo

Elizabeth M Castillo is a British-Mauritian poet, writer, indie-press promoter. She lives in Paris with her family and two cats, where she writes a variety of different things under a variety of pen names. In her writing Elizabeth explores themes of race & ethnicity, motherhood, womanhood, language, love, loss and grief, and a touch of magical realism. She has words in, or upcoming in Selcouth Station Press, Pollux Journal, Revista Purgante, Bandit Fiction, Streetcake Magazine, Fevers of the Mind Press, Melbourne Culture Corner, Feral Poetry, Epoch Press, among others. Her bilingual, debut collection is called “Cajoncito: Poems on Love, Loss, y Otras Locuras”

Elizabeth is on Twitter at   https://twitter.com/EMCWritesPoetry     and Instagram at @EMCWritesPoetry

You can follow and also pre-order her collection now at her website www.elizabethmcastillo.com/coming-soon

Upcoming Events

Hedgehog Poetry Picnic at the Gloucester Poetry Festival

Join 8 poets from The Hedgehog Poetry Press on 16th October 2021 at the Gloucester Poetry Festival 2021 on this year’s the theme of Reflection

http://www.gloucesterpoetryfestival.uk/gpf-2021-hedgehog-press-16th-october-at-1400-ticketed-free-event/#more-381

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/

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