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This episode aired first on Saturday 21st May 2022. The guests were Helen Openshaw, Ciaran O’Rourke, Christine Stoddard, Shailja Sharma, Anne Daly, Jay Rafferty, produced and hosted by Damien B. Donnelly. Below are details and links to all the guest stars…

Helen Openshaw

Helen Openshaw is a Drama and English teacher, from Cumbria. She enjoys writing poetry and plays and inspiring her students to write. Work in Green Ink Poetry magazine, Words and Whispers magazine, The Madrigal, Fragmented Voices, Loft Books and The Dirigible Balloon magazine..

Follow Helen on Twitter at https://twitter.com/pocket_rhyme?lang=en

Ciaran O’ Rourke

Ciarán O’Rourke is an Irish poet. His first collection, The Buried Breath, was highly commended by the Forward Foundation for Poetry in 2019, and his second collection, Phantom Gang, is forthcoming from The Irish Pages Press. His extended essay on the work William Carlos Williams, American Epic: On Paterson, is available as a pamphlet from Beir Bua Press.

Ciarán is on Twitter at https://twitter.com/corourke91

The Buried Breath is available at The Irish Pages https://irishpages.org/product/the-buried-breath-by-ciaran-orourke/

For information on Ciarán’s upcoming Beir Bua launch check out https://beirbuapress.com/events/

Island’s Edge was founded by Ciarán in 2018 as a place for poets in Ireland to share their thoughts about their work and craft https://www.islandsedgepoetry.net/

Christine Stoddard

Christine Stoddard is a Salvadoran-American writer, director, performer, and multi-hyphenated artist creating books, films, plays, murals, etc. She founded Quail Bell Magazine and Quail Bell Press & Productions. Her books include Heaven is a Photograph, Hello, New York: The Living And Dead, Naomi & The Reckoning, Desert Fox by the Sea, Belladonna Magic, and Water for the Cactus Woman, among others. She recently premiered her first feature film, Sirena’s Gallery, after directing several shorts. Her writing/directing credits in theatre include shows for the Gene Frankel Theatre, Theater Alliance at Anacostia Playhouse, Broadway Comedy Club, and others. Previously, she was the first-ever artist-in-residence at Lenox Hill Neighborhood House in Manhattan and served as an inaugural AnkhLave Arts Alliance artist fellow at the Queens Botanical Garden. Her work has appeared in Ms. Magazine, The Huffington Post, Portland Review, Bustle, and beyond.

Follow Christine at her website www.worldofchristinestoddard.com

or on Facebook.com/artistchristinestoddard and Instagram @stoddardsays

Follow Christine on Twitter at https://twitter.com/stoddardsays

Her book is available here http://www.shantiarts.co/uploads/files/stu/STODDARD_BELLADONNA.html

Shailja Sharma

Dr. Shailja Sharma (Ph.D.), USA, is a mental health provider and a multilingual author. Apart from scholarly publication and editorial service, her literary writings have been nationally and internationally published and anthologized. She is the author of a poetry book, “Dear Mama: An Immigrant’s Secret Cry,” by Pittsburgh-based, Setu. Her next collection, “Sip the Roses” is upcoming via ABP Press. Dr. Sharma’s publications have appeared in many literary journals/forums of repute across USA, Canada, UK, and Asia. Recent Credits: Beautiful Space, Spillwords, Literary Heist, Piker Press, Better Than Starbucks, Life in 10, Masticadores, Setu, among other forums. In addition to writing in English, Dr. Sharma is a widely published multilingual author. She was awarded a special literary honor for her writing contributions in international languages

Follow Shailja on Twitter at https://twitter.com/DrShailjaSharma

You can buy Dear Mama at https://www.amazon.com/Shailja-Sharma/e/B09SJSDYF8

Anne Daly

Anne Daly is a writer who lives in Co. Meath, Ireland. Her short fiction and poems have appeared in a number of online and print journals. Her writing has recently featured in The Honest Ulsterman, The Waxed Lemon and Ellipsis Zine. She won second place in the Allingham Fiction Prize, 2021. Her debut pamphlet Triptych was be published by Alien Buddha Press in April 2022.

Follow Anne on Twitter at https://twitter.com/annedalypoetry

And on her website https://www.annedalypoetry.com/

Jay Rafferty

Jay Rafferty is a redhead, an uncle and an eejit. He is the Poetry Editor at Sage Cigarettes Magazine His debut chapbook, Holy Things, was released from The Broken Spine in March 2022 and you can read his work in several journals including Capsule Stories, Lights on the Horizon and the Daily Drunk Magazine. When not losing games of pool he, sometimes, writes stuff.

Follow Jay on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Atlas_Snow

Find out more about Jay at his website website https://jsprafferty.wixsite.com/jayraffertypoet-1

You can find his book at https://thebrokenspine.co.uk/product/holy-things-jay-rafferty-pre-orders/

Upcoming Events

Helen B. Grehan

‘The Return’ by Helen Grehan, in Boyle’s King House, Co Roscommon, Ireland at 2pm on Sunday 29th May

Fahmidan Journal Celebrates

Join host and producer Damien B Donnelly as he reads alongside fellow poets who all had work appearing in the wonderful Fahmidan Journal on Saturday 28th May at 7.30 GMT on zoom. For zoom details, DM Fahmidan on Twitter at https://twitter.com/fahmidanjournal

Damien B Donnelly, Producer, Host and Poet

Damien B Donnelly is a 46-year-old Irish, adopted, gay, writer and podcast producer who spent 23 years living in Paris, Amsterdam, and London, returning to Dublin in 2019. In 2020, his debut pamphlet Eat the Storms appeared on the Poetry Book Society Winter List 2020/21 and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize followed by a Stickleback collection, and second Pushcart Prize nomination, in Jan 2021, both published by The Hedgehog Poetry Press. He produces and hosts the poetry podcast Eat the Storms, now in its 5th season with 300+ international guests on over 12 platforms. In the Jitterfritz of Neon, a poetry pamphlet co-written with Eilin de Paor, was published in Jan 2022 followed by his first full collection Enough! in July 2022, for which he was awarded an Agility Award by Arts Council, Ireland. The Fingal Arts have funded his next collection Back from Away, due in 2023. His poetry and short stories have appeared in numerous journals, both online and in print. In May 2022 he opened submissions to the inaugural issue of The Storms, a journal of poetry, prose and visual art.

He is on Twitter at https://twitter.com/deuxiemepeau and instagram at both @damiboy and @weshallalwayshaveparis

You can purchase his pamphlets at his 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…