Kilkenny County Council's Arts Office is delighted to announce the launch of the fourth edition of Rhyme Rag, a poetry publication featuring the work of young Kilkenny writers at No. 72, John Street on Wednesday 12th November at 5pm.

Once again the number and standard of poetry submitted for inclusion in edition four of the Rhyme Rag was overwhelming making the editors decision a good read but a difficult choice. Nineteen poems from young people aged between twelve and twenty one years who have little or no previous writing experience were selected in this year's publication.
This years Rhyme Rag will once again take the form of a comic book. The illustration of the comic was undertaken by artist Ale Mercado and this year's editor was Eileen Sheehan.
Eileen is from Scartaglin, Co Kerry, now living in Killarney. Her first collection, 'Song Of The Midnight Fox' (Doghouse Books) was published in 2004. Of this work poet Niall MacMonagle says 'In this confident, very impressive first collection, Eileen Sheehan explores memory, the immediate moment and dream. She writes of children and childhood, parents, relationships, illness, "a grief too deep," with admirable clear-sightedness and tenderness. Her poetry is engagingly sympathetic but Sheehan's work is also humorous: her wry look at life "with children and pot-plants and attic conversion" jolts and refreshes.'

She is the winner of the inaugural Writers' Week Listowel Poetry Slam (2004) and the Brendan Kennelly Poetry Award (2006). She is on the Poetry Ireland Writers In Schools Scheme and has been employed by County Kerry VEC teaching Creative Writing at Killarney Technical College. Anthology publications include 'The Open Door Book of Poetry '(Ed Niall MacMonagle), 'Winter Blessings' by Patricia Scanlan, 'Our Shared Japan' (Dedalus Press) and 'The Echoing Years: An Anthology of Irish & Canadian Poetry'. In April 2008 she read at The National American Conference for Irish Studies at St Ambrose University, U.S.A. 2008 also saw the launch of her second collection, 'Down the Sunlit Hall'. She is current Poet in Residence with Limerick Co Council.

Rhyme Rag, Issue 4
Series Director: Mary Butler
Series Coordinators: Niamh Finn
Editor: Eileen Sheehan
Graphic Design: Alé Mercado