‘a wonderful gathering of poems … such a lightness of touch with the old tropes, so much music and energetic imagination at work, so many new notes sounded. Not a line is predictable or a thought expected … These are lyric poems of poignancy and some pain, alert to joy, the unexpected and the promise of better lives, more grace, greater love …’ Damian Smyth, author of Irish Street and Head of Literature and Drama, Arts Council of Northern Ireland.
‘Observing that moment when the world pauses to reconsider what life and human fellowship could be, this collection is better than a Christmas card and offers more longevity than many gifts given. Read Star: Poems for the Christmas Season every year to remember the deeper values beyond the commercialism …’ Zoe Brigley, editor of Poetry Wales, author of Hand And Skull.
32 poems, with15 illustrations (copyright Martin Erspamer), from Culture And Democracy Press, summer 2024
Sanctuary: There Must Be Somewhere from Seren Books 2022.
‘ full of moving, serious poems and individual voices. This too is sanctuary.‘ George Szirtes
‘In this wonderful collaborative collection there is work that variously provokes, soothes, challenges and affirms. Together, the poems provide a meditation on the meaning of ‘sanctuary’ at a time when the word’s relevance to our lives feels increasingly urgent. A vital and illuminating publication.’ Moyra Donaldson
I won the Poetry Prize in the inaugural Linen Hall Ulster-Scots Writing Competition 2021.
A City Burning my collection of 26 short stories was completed with the support of a Writer’s Bursary from Literature Wales. Set in Northern Ireland, Wales and Italy, it was published in 2020 by Seren Books.
The collection was longlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize 2021 ‘the only national literary award to recognise excellence in a published, single-authored short story collection.’ PRAISE for A City Burning here
In November 2022 I was awarded a Life Fellowship by the Institute of Welsh Affairs
Fellowship from Institute of Welsh Affairs
A SIAP Award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland helped to develop my novel-in-progress, Thorn about the politics of language (Irish and Ulster-Scots in Northern Ireland).