The Arts Council of Northern Ireland has given me a Support for the Individual Artist Award towards the drafting of a collection of poetry on the theme of SANCTUARY.

I am honoured to receive this funding and greatly appreciate the encouragement.

This collection  will not be written by me alone. The funding enables me both to involve four other poets who will each contribute a poem, written in collaboration with me, and also to benefit from mentoring by Glen Wilson, author of the poetry collection An Experience on the Tongue (Doire Press) and winner of the Seamus Heaney Award for New Writing 2017.

Given the theme, I will work with

• poet and novelist, Viviana Fiorentino who is also a campaigner on migrancy issues
• poet, author and photographer, Phil Cope an expert on holy wells and sacred places
• two poets who know what it is to be a refugee

I look forward to this exciting work.

Shelley Tracey interviews Viviana Fiorentino about the new poetry project, Letters with Wings