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This episode aired first on Saturday 5th February 2022. The guests were Amanda Bell, Niki Strange, Robin Wright, Mary Leonard, Lawrence Moore and Melody Wang, produced and hosted by Damien B. Donnelly. Below are details and links to all the guest stars…
Amanda Bell
Amanda Bell is a Dublin-based poet and author. She holds a Masters in Poetry Studies, and is a mentor with the Irish Writers Centre and Words Ireland. In 2020 she was appointed inaugural Writer in Residence for Harold’s Cross, and awarded a Literature Bursary by the Arts Council of Ireland. She is an assistant editor of The Haibun Journal. Her most recent title is Riptide (Doire Press, September 2021). Previous publications include First the Feathers (Doire Press, 2017), which was shortlisted for the Strong Shine Award; Undercurrents (Alba, 2016),which won an HSA Kanterman Merit Book Award and was shortlisted for a Touchstone Distinguished Books Award; The Lost Library Book (Onslaught, 2017); and the loneliness of the sasquatch, from the Irish by Gabriel Rosenstock (Alba, 2018); Revolution, a chapbook of haiku, is forthcoming from wildflower poetry press.
Follow Amanda on Twitter at https://twitter.com/gagebybell
Find out more about Amanda at her website https://clearasabellwritingservices.ie/
Niki Strange
Niki Strange rediscovered poetry when undergoing treatment for breast cancer in 2019 and is passionate about poetry’s power to support health and wellbeing. She won Arts Council funding in 2020 to create work as poet in residence at Macmillan’s Horizon Centre in Brighton, also devising and delivering 16 poetry workshops for people affected by cancer. It was a significant, and incredibly rewarding, departure from her previous job as a digital innovation consultant! She’s since read at Dragonflies, Second Light and Cheltenham, won a couple of second prizes (Sussex 2019 and Second Light 2021) and been published by Artemis, Lighthouse and Flights. She is currently working on her first collection.
Follow Niki on Twitter at https://twitter.com/NikiStrange
Robin Wright
Robin Wright fell in love with poetry twenty years ago when she was a non-traditional (aka old) student at a local university. She hasn’t stopped reading or writing poetry since. She has had poems published in various journals and anthologies, and her first chapbook, Ready or Not, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2020. When she’s not reading or writing poetry, she’s spending time with her three grandchildren, who have inspired many of her poems.
Follow Robin in Twitter at https://twitter.com/Robin_C_Wright
And her chapbook Ready or Not is available at Finishing Line Press https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/ready-or-not-by-robin-wright/
Mary Leonard
Mary Leonard taught at Kingston High School (NY) for thirty years and has been a member of the Institute of Writing and Thinking at Bard College for the past twenty years. She has a book being published in April—I Always Knew This—and has previously published four chapbooks.
Her work has appeared in The Naugatuck Review, Hubbub, Cloudbank, Earth’s Daughter and the Rat’s Ass Review. And she was the First Finalist award in the NY State Di Biase Poetry Contest.
Follow Mary/Mare at her website https://www.mareleonard.com/blog
Lawrence Moore
Lawrence Moore has lived in the coastal city of Portsmouth, England his whole life and shares a house overlooking Kingston Cemetery with his husband Matthew and their nine mostly well behaved cats. He has felt an affinity for poetry from a young age and wrote periodically down the years before committing to it in his early forties. His poems have appeared in publications including Sarasvati, Pink Plastic House, Fahmidan Journal, Green Ink Poetry, Dreich and The Madrigal. His debut chapbook Aerial Sweetshop was released in January by Alien Buddha Press.
Follow Lawrence on Twitter at https://twitter.com/LawrenceMooreUK
His chapbook Aerial Sweetshop is available on Amazon US at https://www.amazon.com/Aerial-Sweetshop-Lawrence-Moore/dp/B09NGS532F/ref=sr_1_1?crid=31RF7FSVCKGJP&keywords=aerial+sweetshop&qid=1640481722&sprefix=aerial+sweetshop%2Caps%2C133&sr=8-1
And on Amazon UK at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Aerial-Sweetshop-Lawrence-Moore/dp/B09NGS532F/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3Q11AG8DQF72V&keywords=lawrence+moore&qid=1640481546&sprefix=lawrence+moore%2Caps%2C82&sr=8-2
Melody Wang
Melody Wang currently resides in sunny Southern California with her dear husband and wishes it were autumn all year ‘round. She is a reader for Sledgehammer Lit and a co-host of the podcast Create to Heal. She is published in various journals and anthologies including Neologism Poetry Journal, Trouvaille Review, West Trestle Review, Eclectica Magazine, Hobart After Dark, The Wild Word, and One Art Poetry Journal. Two of her poems have been nominated for Best of the Net 2021, and one has been nominated for the pushcart prize. In her free time, she enjoys reading, tinkering on the piano, hiking, baking, and playing with her dogs. Her debut collection of poems, Night-blooming Cereus, was released in December 2021 with Alien Buddha Press.
Follow Melody on Twitter at https://twitter.com/melodyofmusings
For more about Melody check out https://linktr.ee/MelodyOfMusings
To tune into the podcast Create to Heal click https://anchor.fm/create-to-heal
Upcoming Events
In the Jitterfritz of Neon, a conversational poetry pamphlet
In the Jitterfritz of Neon, a conversational poetry pamphlet by Eilín de Paor and Damien B Donnelly published by The Hedgehog Poetry Press is available to buy here…
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 arriving on the 17th Jan 2022 which will be followed by 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…
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