Books

  • Books:
  • Carnivorous
  • Blood Horses,
  • Beneath The Ice,
  • Snakeskin Stilettos,
  • The Horse's Nest,
  • Miracle Fruit,
  • Selected Poems,
  • The Goose Tree

About Me

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Poet, creative writing facilitator, editor. Experienced mentor for those working towards a first collection. My publishers are Lagan Press, Belfast and Liberties Press, Dublin, who published my Selected Poems in 2012, The Goose Tree in June 2014. Blood Horses was published in 2018 from Caesura Press www.caesurapress.co.uk and a new collection, Carnivorous was published from Doire Press Spring 2019 www.doirepress.com Awarded an Arts Council of NI Major Artist Award in 2019

Tuesday 24 October 2017

A Different Time

It has been a long time since I posted anything on here. Life has been complicated at times over the last couple of years and this summer I finally made the decision to apply for early retirement from the day job. I just knew I could no longer keep going. I felt tired and anxious. I had compassion fatigue My writing had been sporadic at best.
I've been officially retired for one month now and have still to settle into a new rhythm. For all of my writing life I have fitted creativity around everything else that had to be done. Now I have lots more time to myself and my hope is that I will write more - but I'm not sure that it will happen. The expanse of hours that I have now feels a bit scary. Perhaps I won't be able to fill it with words.

I'm hoping to kick start some creativity with a 10 day residency at Cill Rialaig courtesy of the Irish Writers Centre. It will be an opportunity to have a 'retreat' in which to think about themes for work and to go inwards to see if I can find a renewed sense of myself.