Trudy Hayes is an author, playwright, and journalist. She wrote “The Politics of Seduction”, and her last play, “Do Nothing, Say Nothing, Be Nothing” was produced by Fishamble Theatre. Her stories have been widely published and anthologised, and she was nominated for a Hennessy Award. Her play, “Out of my Head”, was nominated for the Stuart Parker Theatre Award.” She is currently writing a memoir.
Trudy Hayes is an author, playwright, and journalist. She wrote “The Politics of Seduction”, and her last play, “Do Nothing, Say Nothing, Be Nothing” was produced by Fishamble Theatre. Her stories have been widely published and anthologised, and she was nominated for a Hennessy Award. Her play, “Out of my Head”, was nominated for the Stuart Parker Theatre Award.” She is currently writing a memoir. Trudy Hayes is an author, playwright, and journalist. She wrote “The Politics of Seduction”, and her last play, “Do Nothing, Say Nothing, Be Nothing” was produced by Fishamble Theatre. Her stories have been widely published and anthologised, and she was nominated for a Hennessy Award. Her play, “Out of my Head”, was nominated for the Stuart Parker Theatre Award.” She is currently writing a memoir.
Rachel Coventry’s poems appear in The North, The Moth, Abridged, Poetry Ireland Review, Stand, The Irish Times, and The Shop. Her debut collection Afternoon Drinking in the Jolly Butchers (2018) is published by Salmon Poetry.
Brian Kirk is a poet and writer from Dublin. His first poetry collection After The Fall was published by Salmon Poetry in 2017. His poem “Birthday” won the Listowel Writers’ Week Irish Poem of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards 2018. He was awarded a bursary from the Arts Council of Ireland in 2020 to write and film a sequence of formal poems on the Covid 19 pandemic. He published a novel for children 9 – 12 years in 2016 called The Rising Son. His short fiction chapbook It’s Not Me, It’s You won the Southword Fiction Chapbook competition and was published in 2019 by Southword Editions. He blogs at www.briankirkwriter.com.
Victoria Keating is a singer, writer and blogger who digs a good garden and prefers books to shoes. Victoria’s first single is called ‘Little Rooms’ It’s the title track of her debut album, which will be released in September 2021. This song is her first release as a solo artist, and it is very special. It is an uplifting hymn to hope, an antidote to the dark times we find ourselves in. ‘Little Rooms’ refers to the confines of the smaller spaces we now live in, and the hope that we may all “come dancing” again soon.
Victoria has worked with Christy Moore extensively since 2011, providing harmony vocals on five albums. She has toured extensively with Christy and with Declan Sinnott playing sold out venues such as Glastonbury, Vicar Street in Dublin, The Waterfront Hall in Belfast and the Marquee in Cork. She is building a loyal fanbase on her weekly Facebook show ‘Little Rooms, Big Music’ and is recording her first album with Declan Sinnott.
Victoria released ‘The Poor Ground’ with Aine O’Gorman in November 2020. This song was on the RTE Recommends playlist and is still being played on national radio.
Christy Moore says of ‘Little Rooms’ “That’s just gorgeous..your singing is beautiful, well done Vickie!”
Brian Greene of 92.5 Phoenix FM says “Listen number one: immediate reaction, play again. It is lovely, simple, like Scottish folk..Karine Polwart comes to mind..the words are dark and mysterious and keep me thinking.”
Little Rooms: Lyrics and music by Victoria Keating
Vocals: Victoria Keating
Vocals, Guitar, Bass, Organ: Declan Sinnott
Produced mixed and mastered by Declan Sinnott.
Facebook: =https://www.facebook.com/littleroomsbigmusic/live/
Twitter: @victoriakeatingmusic
Instagram: @victoriakeatingmusic
Seán Lysaght is from Limerick in Ireland and taught for many years at the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology in Castlebar, Co Mayo. He is the author of six volumes of poems, including The Clare Island Survey (1991), Scarecrow (1998), The Mouth of a River (2007) and Carnival Masks (2014), all from Gallery Press. He has also published a translation of Goethe’s Venetian Epigrams (Gallery, 2008), and a verse narrative of the life of Edmund Spenser. His prose work, Eagle Country, exploring the wild landscapes of Mayo and the west of Ireland, was published recently by Little Toller Books. He won the Lawrence O’Shaughnessy Poetry Award in 2007 and his Selected Poems appeared from Gallery in 2010. He lives in Westport, County Mayo.
C. Lee McKenzie writes contemporary/realistic novels. Double Negative, Not Guilty, Sudden Secrets, Princess of Las Pulgas and Sliding on the Edge are five written for the young adult-crossover market. Double Negative was chosen as one of the top ten Young Adult novels in 2019.
Her middle grade fiction include adventure-fantasies Alligators Overhead, Great Time Lock Disaster, Some Very Messy Medieval Magic (Spring 2018) and Sign of the Green Dragon.
Her other fiction and non-fiction is published in magazines.
Mary J. Oliver has a background in the visual arts. Her first book, Jim Neat, The Case of a Young Man Down on His Luck was published by Seren 2019. It’s a collection of poems, archival material and photographs, a distillation of 10 years’ of research into the mysterious life of her father. She was raised in Cornwall, moved to the west coast of Scotland where she raised her daughters; has now returned with her husband to the Western tip Cornwall, where she ‘loves to belong to be’ .
She enjoys editing Piccolina, a newsletter which focuses on promoting Cornish poets and live poetry events in Cornwall, but since Lockdown, has widened its remit to promoting poets and online poetry events anywhere.