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This final episode of Season 9 aired on Saturday 1st February 2025. It is produced and hosted by Damien B. Donnelly. Below are details and links to the guest stars…

Vicky Allen

Vicky Allen lives on the southeast coast of rural Scotland with her family and their beloved beagle. She is an artist and community worker by background, and currently practices as a poet, artist, spiritual director and retreat guide, whilst also working in the charity sector. Her first poetry pamphlet “Broken Things and other tales” was published by Hedgehog Poetry Press in 2020, followed by a Hedgehog ‘Stickleback’ micro-collection in 2023, and has been widely published in print and online over the years, resulting in Pushcart Prize nominations amongst others. Vicky’s most recent book is Wonder Lines , a collection of poems and stories centred around the lives of three 7th century female saints. It was adapted from her 2018 Edinburgh Book Fringe Festival performance of the same name. On this episode Vicky was accompanied musically by Kieth Mack.

For more about Vicky

S Preston Duncan

S. Preston Duncan is a leathercrafter and death doula in Richmond, Virginia (US). He is the author of the full-length poetry collection Blood Alluvium (Parlyaree Press, 2024), and the limited risograph-printed pamphlet The Sound in This Time of Being (BIGWRK, 2020), about which novelist Tom Robbins said, “Reading [these] poems today I had the feeling of having asked (and received) an autograph from starlight.” Duncan’s poetry has been commissioned by The Peace Studio, shortlisted for the Art of Creative Unity Award, nominated for Best of the Net and Pushcart, and appeared in dozens of journals and anthologies around the world.

For more about S Preston Duncan

Marty McKenna / Sam O’Neill

Marty McKenna is an independent Irish poet, born in Tyrone, now living and writing in Belfast. Marty works for the Belfast trust and has poems published widely in print and online. He won the matrix poetry prize in 2017. he has published three chapbooks, ‘silent stigma, loud leaf’ 2021, ‘gently, but a dream’ 2022 and ‘sleeve notes’ 2024. He is currently running a project called Button Press where twenty four featured poets have a poem analysed by Marty, hosted poets are added almost daily too. Marty is a neuro spicy poet.

Read about Button Press on Writing.ie https://www.writing.ie/guest-blogs/button-press/

Sam O’Neill first started taking up music at an early age. His father gifted him a piano from his grandad. At school he went to music lessons and enjoyed them. He then progressed to private lessons where he moved through the grades. He studied with ABRSM for both theory and practical lessons. He has performed publicly on a few occasions, most notably the BBC sessions in Victoria Square a number of years ago. His musical style ranges from classical to modern, with such inspirations as Ludivico Einaudi and Yann Tiersen. This is evident in his musical style. Recent endeavours include collaborations with Marty McKenna.

For more about Marty

For more about Sam here

Púca

Púca is a 26-year-old writer from Dundalk in Ireland, currently working on two poetry collection, one which will be a chronicle of grief and all its forms.

For more about Púca

James Kenny

James Kenny, from Mullingar, Co. Westmeath is a poet and playwright, currently sharing poems on social media.

Charles K. Carter

Charles K. Carter (they/he) is a queer poet and educator from Iowa who currently lives in Oregon. They share their home with their artist husband and their spoiled pets. He enjoys film, yoga, and live music. Melissa Etheridge is their ultimate obsession. Carter has an MFA in writing from Lindenwood University. He is a volunteer video curator for Button Poetry. Their poems have been featured in a variety of literary journals and anthologies. Carter is the author of several chapbooks including Salem Revisited from WordTech Editions. His debut full-length collection, Read My Lips, was released in 2022 by David Robert Books. To coincide with the release of their most recent chapbook, Artificial Sweetness (Finishing Line Press), Carter created the video podcast series #SundaySweetChats, which can be found on YouTube. Kelsay Books released his second full-length, If the World Were a Quilt, in late 2023. Their most recent and most vulnerable collection, The God of Loneliness, was released by Rebel Satori Press in 2024. Forthcoming is Follow This Blood to Find a Dead Thing (Fernwood Press, 2025).

For more about Charles

Cáit O’Neill McCullagh

Cáit O’Neill McCullagh began writing poetry in December 2020, and since then has been published widely in journals, magazine, newspapers and anthologies. Her work is, in parts, shaped by the languages and traditions of her Highland and Irish upbringings, and by her work as an archaeologist and ethnologist. Her debut pamphlet ‘The songs I sing are sisters’ – a collaboration with Sligo based poet Sinéad McClure – was winner of Dreich’s Classic Chapbook 2022, and was a Saboteur Award winner in 2023. Her debut full-length collection ‘The Bone Folder’, was published by Drunk Muse Press in July 2024. It has been described as announcing ‘an unmistakable and distinctive talent’, composed by ‘a bold and visionary writer who crafts the heartwood of language into luminous work that sings with life’.

For more about Cáit

Host / Producer Damien B Donnelly

Damien B Donnelly is a 49-year-old Irish, adopted, queer writer & podcast producer who spent 23 years in Paris, Amsterdam, and London working in the fashion industry, returning to Dublin at the end of 2019. He’s the host / producer of Eat the Storms and the EIC of The Storms, the printed journal of poetry, prose & 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 also published by Hedgehog in August 2022. His poetry and short stories have appeared in numerous journals, online and in print. His 2^nd full collection, Back from Away, was published in May 2024 with Turas Press.

The Storms journal is available here

Follow Damien is on X and instagram and Bluesky: @eatthestorms,com

You can purchase his pamphlets and collections at his website

Backing music for Eat the Storms is from Purple Planet Royalty Free Music

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