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This episode aired first on Saturday 19th November 2022, produced and hosted by Damien B. Donnelly. Below are details and links to the guest stars…

Valerie Bence

Following a Poetry MA and a year’s mentoring, Valerie Bence‘s first pamphlet Falling in love with a dead man (based on her relationship with Rembrandt) was published in 2019 (Cinnamon Press). Her second pamphlet Overlap (Emma Press 2022) is quite different, being a meditation on the speed she seems to have travelled from granddaughter to grandmother – and the myriad similarities that astonish her daily. Both grandmothers felt very close in lockdown#1. She has been published in many anthologies (Indigo Dreams forthcoming) and was longlisted for Gingko (2019), Fish Poetry (2019) and shortlisted for Poetry School Primers in 2018. She is an ekphrastic poet in its broadest sense and has worked on projects with the British Museum, Chelsea Fringe and the Scott Polar Research Institute. She lives and works in Bucks and is delighted to be a ‘Stormer’. 

Follow Valerie on Twitter at https://twitter.com/BenceValerie

Overlap is available here… https://theemmapress.com/shop/poetry/pamphlets/overlap/

Jessica L. Walsh

Jessica L. Walsh is the author of Book of Gods and Grudges (Glass Lyre Press, 2022) as well as two previous collections. Her work has appeared in many US-based journals like RHINO, Whale Road Review, Ninth Letter, and more. She is the blog mistress at Agape Editions. Originally from small-town Michigan, she now lives outside of Chicago with her family and teaches at a community college.

Follow Jessica on Twitter at https://twitter.com/JessicaLWalsh1

Find out more about Jessica via her website http://www.jessicalwalsh.com/

Buffy Aakaash

Raised in New Jersey west of NYC, Buffy Aakaash has since lived as a queer man throughout the US. His poems have been published by Sweety Cat Press, Main Street Rag and New Feathers, among others. “Untangling the Knots,” his chapbook of “How to…” poems will be published by Kelsay Books in December 2022. His poem The Beauty Before Us received the 2022 Marian Gleason Memorial Award. He now lives in Vermont’s Green Mountains with his 4-legged fellow traveler, Bodhi. 

Follow Buffy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/buffy_aakaash

Find out more about Buffy at this website https://www.buffyaakaashpoetry.com/

You can also find Buffy on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/baakaash/

Aileen Meenagh

Aileen Meenagh is an Irish poet from Dublin making her poetry debut on Damien B. Donnelly’s podcast, Eat The Storms. Living in Dublin next to the Meath border with her husband and daughter, she began writing poetry in early 2022 as a form of therapy.

Alex Smith

With a foot firmly each side of the Irish Sea, Alex Smith was raised in troubled Northern Ireland during the Eighties. Educated in English and Spanish, his work has taken him to some of the most socially deprived schools in England. His stark poetry has been published in ‘Twyckenham Notes’, ‘Tammy’, ‘Okay Donkey’, ‘Bonnie’s Crew’, ‘Mojave Heart’ and ‘Barren Magazine’ amongst others. He edits at ‘ABCTales’ and has a collection entitled ‘I dreamt I wrote another me’ published through Cerasus Poetry and available on Amazon.

Follow Alex on Twitter at https://twitter.com/AlexCalling79

Find out more about Alex at his website https://alexsmithpoetry.com/

Damien B Donnelly, Producer, Host and Poet

Damien B Donnelly is a 47-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 6th season with 375+ 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! on 29th August 2022, for which he was awarded an Agility Award by Arts Council, Ireland. The Fingal Arts have funded his next collection Back from Away. His poetry and short stories have appeared in numerous journals, both online and in print. He is the editor-in-chief of The Storms, a journal of poetry, prose and visual art.

The Storms journal is available at https://eatthestorms.com/2022/08/18/the-storms-inaugural-issue/

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

You can purchase his pamphlets and collections 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/

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