Kilkenny Poetry Broadsheet 19

Kilkenny County Council Arts Office is delighted to celebrate the publication of the nineteenth issue of the very popular KILKENNY POETRY BROADSHEET. The aim of the publication is to give local writers a platform for their work. Ninety five poems by fifty poets were submitted for consideration this year and thirteen poems by twelve poets were selected for publication
This nineteenth issue of Kilkenny Poetry Broadsheet was edited by Jean O'Brien
Jean O'Brien is a Dubliner who had an eight-year sojourn in the Irish Midlands and is now back living in Dublin. She was writer in residence for County Laois in 2005. She has had five collections of poetry published her latest, her New & Selected Fish on a Bicycle was reprinted by Salmon Publishing in 2018. She was the 2017/18 recipient of the Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship and has won awards for her poetry including The Arvon International Poetry Prize, the Fish International Prize and was recently shortlisted for the UCD Voices of War Poetry prize.
She holds an M. Phil. in creative writing/poetry from Trinity College, Dublin and tutors in creative writing and poetry in places as diverse as the Irish Writers Centre, Community groups, schools, prisons and at degree level. Her work is often broadcast on Sunday Miscellany and other programmes and is widely anthologised.
Editor Jean O'Brien's statement

I was honoured to be asked to judge this year's Kilkenny Poetry Broadsheet, and to run the workshop where I met many talented people. Judging, is by its nature always a subjective thing, with different judges having their own preferences and sensibilities. One thing they tend to have in common is the ability to recognise and appreciate a good, well-worked poem when they meet it. Many of the poems I received fulfilled this expectation of being well-crafted, there were poems of nature, nurture, place and everything in-between.
Robert Frost said that for a poem to succeed it must be... 'Like a piece of ice on a hot stove a poem should ride on its own melting...'. By this he meant it should hold the readers interest from the first line and evolve in a controlled way down the page. I was looking for poems that surprised, were mysterious, pushed at language and had an indefinable touch of magic. I received many such poems; my difficulty was in whittling them down. Poems went in and out of my hands under consideration, but eventually after reading and rereading they announced themselves to me and I hope you enjoy meeting them in the Broadsheet. Thanks to Mary Butler and Deirdre Southey from Kilkenny's Arts Office and to Alé Mercado for his design.

Published Poets

Carmel Cummins 1) Egretta Garzetta 2) Lá Idirnáisinunta na Mban 2019
Emily Murtagh The Birds
Gerry Moran Caulking
Joan Cleere Mother
K S Moore Moon Woman
Liam O'Neill Where I Grew Up
Noel Howley Middle of the Road
Nora Brennan Blackberries
Nuala Roche Pack
Orla Hennessy The Monks Door
Robert Pearson Littoral
Tomás Ceitínn Darkness into Light

Shortlisted Poets

Sharon Verrall Kite
James Chambers Collateral Damage
Eamonn Donovan The State of France
Nuala Roche The State of Her
Karina Tynan Going Back

2019 Broadsheet.pdf (size 5.6 MB)

The Kilkenny Poetry Broadsheet is available in Kilkenny Libraries, selected bookshops and from the Kilkenny Arts Office, 5 Dean Street.