A young Wexford TY student is running a new initiative for Poetry Day…
Sinéad O’Reilly, who is a TY student at Loreto Wexford, is running a Deep Routes Poetry Exchange for Poetry Day Ireland.
In 2020, fifteen emerging young writers from around the island were selected to participate in the first-ever MoLI (Museum of Literature Ireland) Edna O’Brien Young Writers Bursary.
The aim of the programme is to offer high level mentoring to those selected and to introduce them to publishers, authors and literature academics. Pandemic notwithstanding, the writers brought their creative energies together, produced some great work and formed friendships that have endured.
Deep Routes Poetry Exchange is a Poetry Day event supported by Poetry Ireland, run in association with Narrative 4, ‘a global organization driven by artists, shaped by educators and led by students’, and inspired by the latter’s ‘Story Exchange’ concept.
It involves the writers coming together in pairs, each presenting a significant personal story from the past year, the other taking it in a new direction and expressing it through poetry. The poems, formed in a short burst of creative energy following the exchange, will be performed at an online event on Poetry Day (April 29) and published in an online and printed anthology.
Also contributing to the project is 2021 Edna O’Brien Young Writers Bursary Fellow, the acclaimed Dublin writer Sarah Maria Griffin. Original artwork for the project is provided by one of Ireland’s leading expressionist artists and Aosdána member Michael Mulcahy. Project coordinator is Sinéad O’Reilly, a student at Loreto Wexford, and one of last year’s Edna O’Brien Bursary participants.
The event launch will be streamed on Youtube from 11am on Poetry Day on Deep Routes Poetry Exchange channel. The YouTube link will be available here closer to the event.
The limited edition anthology will be distributed from MoLI, Narrative 4 Limerick, Poetry Ireland, Tramp Press (along with orders) as well as in smaller numbers from local arts organisations.
The digital anthology will be viewable at the event blog deeproutespoetryexchange.wordpress.com
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