Podcast available on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, OverCast, Player FM, Radio Public, PocketCast, CastBox, iTunes, Podbean, Podcast Addicts and many more platforms. The poetry podcast is produced and hosted by Damien B. Donnelly.

Below is a list of guests on the special episode which drops at 5pm, 23rd Dec 2023…

Karen Pierce Gonzalez

Karen Pierce Gonzalez’s collections include True North, Coyote in the Basket of My Ribs,  Sightings from a Star Wheel,  Down River with Li Po, and Family Folktales.  An award-winning writer, and visual artist, her work has appeared in numerous publications. She considers her entree this year as a ‘stormer’ to be one of her most memorable 2023 experiences.

Follow Karen on Twitter at https://twitter.com/folkheartpress and find out more about Karen at https://karenpiercegonzalez.blogspot.com/

PD Lyons

PD Lyons was born and raised in the USA  Since 1998  has resided in Ireland. Spent a few years before  in Cape Brenton Nova Scotia where winters are great for writing. Travelled a bit worked a lot raised two wonderful children as well as horses ( Morgans, Andalusian Thoroughbred, Irish sport horse etc.) in USA and Ireland. Has worked as dishwasher, floor washer, textile mill labourer, construction worker, pesticide sprayer, fire safety inspector, toy shop manager, substance abuse councillor, women’s shoe shop manager etc currently cutting grass in a small medieval village in co. Westmeath Ireland. Lyons received the Mattatuck College Award for Outstanding Achievement in Poetry and a Bachelor of Science with honours from Teikyo Post University Connecticut (USA). The work of PD Lyons has appeared in many formats throughout the world. Lyons published poetry collections by Lapwing Press, Belfast and erbacce Press, Liverpool.Winner of the annual erbacce-press International Poetry Competition for 2019.

Follow PD on Twitter at https://twitter.com/pdlyonspoet and find out more about PD at his website https://pdlyons.wordpress.com/

Siobhan McLaughlin

Siobhán Mc Laughlin is a poet and creative writing facilitator from Co. Donegal in Ireland. Her poems have appeared previously in publications including The Honest Ulsterman, The Ekphrastic Review, Drawn to the Light Press, The Waxed Lemon, The Poetry Village and more. She featured on Donegal Daily’s We are the Poets Series in 2020 and was longlisted in The Bangor Poetry Competition 2022. She is a big fan of haiku and inspiring people to put pen to paper and write! 

Read some of Siobhan’s poems here https://www.donegaldaily.com/2020/04/14/wearethepoetsdonegal-siobhan-mclaughlin-14/

Stewart Carswell

Stewart Carswell grew up in the Forest of Dean and currently lives in Cambridgeshire, where he co-hosts the Fen Speak open mic night. His poems have recently been published in Under the Radar, Finished Creatures, Ink Sweat & Tears, and The Storms Journal. His pamphlet “Knots and branches” was published in 2016, and his debut full-length collection “Earthworks” was published in 2021 by Indigo Dreams

Follow Stewart on Twitter at https://twitter.com/stewcarswell and find out more about Stewart at https://linktr.ee/stewartcarswell

Meg Freer

Meg Freer grew up in Montana and received music degrees in Minnesota and New Jersey, where she later worked in book publishing. She now lives in Ontario, where she teaches piano, edits, writes, and enjoys the outdoors year-round. Her photos, poems and prose have been published in journals such as Ruminate, Madrigal, Poetry South, Eastern Iowa Review, and Burningword Literary Review. She has published two poetry chapbooks, Serve the Sorrowing World with Joy, and A Man of Integrity. Her Substack newsletter is called Finding the Color.

Follow Meg on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100010014006034

Maurice Devitt

Born in Dublin, Maurice Devitt completed an MA in Poetry Studies at Mater Dei following a 30-year career in Insurance & Banking. His debut collection ‘Growing Up in Colour’ was published by Doire Press in 2018, and his second collection ‘Some of These Stories are True’ came out in May 2023. His poems have featured in a significant number of journals, both in Ireland and internationally, and been nominated for Pushcart, Forward and Best of the Net prizes. He was a featured poet at the Poets in Transylvania Festival in 2015 and a guest speaker at the John Berryman Centenary Conference in both Dublin and Minneapolis. He is a past winner of the Trócaire/Poetry Ireland, Poems for Patience and Bangor Poetry Competitions, and has been placed or shortlisted in many others, including The Patrick Kavanagh Award, The Listowel Collection Competition and Cúirt New Writing Award. Maurice is the chairperson of The Hibernian Writers’ Group, and his Pushcart-nominated poem, ‘The Lion Tamer Dreams of Office Work’, was the title poem of an anthology of the group’s work published by Alba Publishing in 2015. He is curator of the Irish Centre for Poetry Studies Facebook page where he posts featured poems, news and poetry articles on a daily basis.

Follow Maurice on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/maurice.devitt

Nuala McEvoy

Nuala McEvoy is half Irish and half English but has lived in other countries for many years.  Right now, she is living in Germany. Nuala has had some of her writing published in Lighten Up Online, Funny Pearls UK, Tap into Poetry, The Hooghly Review, The Metaphysical Review, Dark Winter Lit, Transients Mag and Little Old Lady Comedy.  She has read poems for Eat the Storms and Coalition for Digital Narratives.  She has contributed to The Bad Day Book anthology. She also enjoys painting and has some of her work displayed in Münster, Germany. Nuala and her husband have bought a smallish Christmas tree this year. They are looking forward to their children travelling from the UK and Spain to see them in Germany this Christmas!

Follow Nuala on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mcevoy_nuala

Raya Yarbrough

Raya Yarbrough is a poet, a writer of flash fiction, creative nonfiction, and a singer-songwriter based in Los Angeles, California. Raya has written and produced three albums of original music, and an original musical/concept album “North of Sunset, West Of Vine,” which included the song “Race Car 49.” Her voice and original music have been featured in many TV series, including Battlestar Galactica, and Outlander. She is currently finishing a humorous memoir about her daughter’s first five years. 

Follow Raya on Twitter at https://twitter.com/RayaYarbrough and find out more about Raya on her website https://www.rayayarbrough.com/

Anne McDonald

Anne McDonald is a spoken word poet, creative writing facilitator and festival curator. Her work is centered on the challenges we face in a society that is changing rapidly and how we respond or react to those changes. Through her writing she explores themes of parenthood, aging, death, loss, inclusion and response to the human condition. She has had work published in Women’s News, Hot Press, Electric Acorn, Woman’s Work Anthologies, The Blue Nib, The Strokestown Anthology, The Waxed Lemon, The Storms Inaugural Issue, Fragments Of Time, Blue Mondays’ Anthology 2021, 192 Magazine, Crow Name and several issues of Live Encounters Poetry & Writing. Her work has also been featured on collaborations with musicians and animators and reviewed and broadcast on RTE Radio. Her first collection of poetry Crow’s Books was published in 2020 and her second collection, Clothespeg in my Pocket, will be published in 2024. 

Follow Anne on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scarecrowbooks and find out more about Anne on her website https://creativelythinkingweb.wordpress.com/writing-and-spoken-word/

Liam Flanagan

Liam Flanagan is a 49 year old living in Galway, Ireland. Degree in English. Former IT manager with over forty poems published over the last three years. He is a BIA recipient for Literature and likes Sport, Film, Music and Politics 

Follow Liam on Twitter at https://twitter.com/LFlanaga

Maeve McKenna

Maeve McKenna lives in Sligo, Ireland. Her poetry is published widely. Her debut pamphlet, A Dedication to Drowning, was published in February 2022. Body as a Home for this Darkness, her second pamphlet, was published in September 2023. Maeve listens to the trees.

Follow Maeve on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Maeve_McKenna1

Rhiannon Howys

Rhiannon Howys trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and has an endless list of theatre credits including Punk Fairy in Jack and the Beanstalk (Belgrade, Coventry), Booth Singer in Cats (UK tour) and Jan in Grease (Dominion and Cambridge).

Follow Rhiannon on twitter on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/rhiannon.howys

Merril D Smith

Merril D. Smith is a poet who lives in southern New Jersey. Her work has been published in poetry journals and anthologies, including Black Bough Poetry, Acropolis, Anti-Heroin Chic, The Storms, Fevers of the Mind ,Gleam, Humana Obscura, and Nightingale and Sparrow. She holds a Ph.D. in American history from Temple University in Philadelphia and is the author/editor of numerous books on gender, sexuality, and history. Her full-length poetry collection, River Ghosts (Nightingale & Sparrow Press) was Black Bough Poetry’s December 2022 Book of the Month. 

Follow Merril on Twitter on https://twitter.com/merril_mds and find out more about Merril on her website https://merrildsmith.com/

Barney Ashton Bullock

Barney Ashton-Bullock is the poet in the hybrid music/poetry/pop projects ‘Andy Bell is Torsten’ and the ‘Downes Braide Association’ and is widely published in cult poetry journals including Travesties, Queerlings, Ice Floe Press, Poetry Bus, the ‘Avalanches In Poetry’ Leonard Cohen tribute anthologies, and Broken Sleep’s Aphex Twin and Masculinity anthologies. Recent pamphlets and collections include ‘Café Kaput!’ (Broken Sleep, 2020), ‘F**kpig Zeitgeist!’ and ‘Bucolicism’ (both Cherry Red, 2021), ’Geopoliticus, Pupsy!’ (Red Ceilings Press, 2022), ’Cul-de-Sacrilege!’ (Polari Press, 2022) and ‘Beau, Beau Sadisto!’ (Back Room Poetry, 2023).

Follow Barney on Twitter at https://twitter.com/barney_poet

Barney’s Christmas song is with https://twitter.com/SoftWaveMusic

Marie Studer

Marie Studer lives in the Shannonside village of Castleconnell, Co. Limerick. She has published a poetry collection Real Words (Revival Press, 2023). Marie is a past winter of the Trocáire Poetry Ireland Competition, twice a winner in the Bangor Ekphrastic Poetry Challenge and shortlisted in other competitions. She has been widely published in literary journals and anthologies.

Follow Marie on Twitter at https://twitter.com/StudiMarie

John Noonan

 John Noonan has been Highly Commended in the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award 2022, his work has been published in Poetry Ireland Review, and many more anthologies, literary magazines in Ireland   John received a Pushcart nomination and was the Over the Edge Festival featured poet in 2021 and was one of the chosen readers for this year’s International Cúirt Showcase Literary Festival Galway. He is also a past recipient of The Goldsmith Poetry Award and is working towards a full first collection.

Follow John on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/john.noonan.564

Angela Graham

Angela Graham is from Belfast and lives in Northern Ireland and Wales. Seren Books published her debut collection of poetry, Sanctuary: There Must Be Somewhere in 2022. She won the Poetry Prize at the Linen Hall Ulster-Scots Writing Competition 2021. 

Follow Angela on Twitter at https://twitter.com/AngelaGraham8

Bryan Franco

Bryan Franco is a neurodivergent, gay, Jewish poet from Brunswick, Maine who competed in the 2014 National Poetry Slam in Oakland, California. He has been published in the US, Australia, England, Germany, Holland, India, Ireland, and Scotland and has featured in the US, Canada, England, Ireland, and Scotland. He performed at the New York City Poetry Festival in 2022 and 2023.  He was a finalist in the 2022 and won the 2023 NAMI New Jersey Mental Health Poetry Contest and is a Best Of The Net nominee. He has facilitated poetry workshops for Brunswick High School, Tumblewords Project, and Phynnecabulary. He hosts Café Generalissimo Open Mic, is a member of the Beardo Bards Of The Bardo poetry troupe, painter, sculptor, gardener, and culinary genius. His book “Everything I Think Is All in My Mind” was published in 2021.

Follow Bryan on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/francobryani

Martina Kearney

Martina Kearney has been writing for over 12 years and is a serial attender of writing workshops & courses at places like The Irish Writers Centre in Dublin, Doolin Writers Weekend, Richmond Barracks and online with Poetrykit.org, and recently was selected for a workshop at The Gallery Press. She is a member of Richmond Barracks Writing group with 2 poems published in the group’s anthology “Illuminations”, published by Dublin City Council. In December 2020, her work was included in a specially commissioned short animation film for Dublin City’s Winter Lights Festival. This year she was selected for inclusion in Brigid’s Book, supported by Kildare County council and produced by Blueway Arts Studios as part of Brigid 1500 program.

Siobhan Mac Mahon

Siobhan Mac Mahon is an Irish Poet & Word-Witch, honouring and celebrating the return of the Sacred Feminine and our deep connection to the Earth. She has been creating magic, mayhem and mischief with her words for over twenty-five years, collaborating with other artists to combine poetry with music, dance and with film.  Recently returned to Dublin after many years in the UK, she brings with her a new epic poem: ‘Message from Brigid’ a powerful visionary poem in the voice of Brigid, Goddess and saint of Ireland. She has performed her poetry widely in the UK and Ireland and is a Hennessey New Irish Writing award winner. She is published in many anthologies and journals.

Follow Siobhan on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Siobhanirishpoet

Miriam Colleran

Miriam Colleran lives with her daughters in Kildare and has published poems on grief and loss.

Sue Finch

Sue Finch likes all kinds of coasts, peculiar things, and the scent of ice-cream freezers. She lives with her wife in North Wales.

Follow Sue on Twitter at https://twitter.com/soopoftheday and find out more about Sue at https://suefinch.co.uk/

Julian Day

Julian Day is an emergent poet and writer, currently based in Surrey. Featured in two  Blackbough Poetry anthologies this year, he has also been published in The Storms Journal and read several times on Eat The Storms podcast. Julian has been nominated for a best of the Net award for a poem published in the spring 2023 Sound & Vision Anthology from BlackBough Poetry

Follow Julian on twitter on https://twitter.com/JulianD86666247 and Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/julianday30/

Damien B Donnelly, Producer, Host and Poet

Damien B Donnelly is a 48-year-old Irish, adopted, gay writer and podcast producer who spent 23 years living in Paris, Amsterdam, and London forking in the fashion industry, returning to Dublin at the end of 2019. He is the host and producer of the poetry podcast Eat the Storms and the editor-in-chief of The Storms, a journal of poetry, prose and visual art. His debut pamphlet, Eat the Storms, published by The Hedgehog Poetry Press, nominated for a Pushcart Prize and featured on the Poetry Book Society Winter List 2020/21, followed by a Pushcart Prize nominated Stickleback (micro collection) and In the Jitterfritz of Neon, a conversational pamphlet co-written with Eilín de Paor. His first full collection Enough! was published by Hedgehog in August 2022. His poetry and short stories have appeared in numerous journals, both online and in print. His 2^nd full collection is due out in Spring 2024 with Turas Press

The Storms journal is available at https://eatthestorms.com/the-storm-shop/

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/

You can find us on many platforms including Spotify and here is the link…