Speakeasy June 25th 8.00 pm
June 25th is next Speakeasy Sessions in Skibbereen and the slate this month is as exciting and varied as ever. We reconvene at 8pm at the wonderful Tanyard on Main Street – a beautifully refurbished venue with a specialist whiskey bar and a lovely mini-theatre in at the back. This month we will be joined by a wonderful group of writers and poets including ER Murray, Anton Floyd, Anne Barrett, Moze Jacobs, Rae McKinlay, Nick Smith and the inimitable “Rude Judes”. 8 great performances guaranteed. Take your seats.
E.R. Murray
E R Murray Intro: Elizabeth Rose Murray writes for children, young adults, and adult audiences. Her books include the award-winning Nine Lives Trilogy and Caramel Hearts.
The Book of Learning – Nine Lives Trilogy 1 is currently being made into a film, and is also on the Junior Cycle English reading list. Recent short story and essay publications in anthologies and journals include The Elysian: Creative Responses, Terrain.org, Reading the Future, Autonomy, Popshots and Banshee.
She lives in West Cork, Ireland.
Nick Smith
Nick Smith has been writing short stories, flash-fiction, essays and longer works the best part of his adult life, occasionally dabbling in poetry. He is a voracious reader and loves films and whilst his work tends towards a strong, imaginative content, he has a philosophical outlook and a firm belief in the ‘reality of fiction’. At present Nick is undertaking the final edit of his current novel which, whilst classed as fiction, does possess a semi-autobiographical element.
In 2013, Nick founded The pSoken Wrod, a monthly literary forum for authors, poets and song-writers to share their work and which takes place in de Barra’s Folk Club, Clonakilty. His story, Dead Language, won From The Well Shorty Story Competition in 2014. He is a regular attendee at the Clonakilty County Library Writers’ Group.
Moze M. Jacobs
Moze M. Jacobs plays with words and other wind instruments. Partly to earn a living. Born in Holland of Dutch/German extraction she has lived in Surrey, Liverpool, Belfast, and for long stretches in Amsterdam where she had her children. She moved to the outskirts of Clonakilty 22 years ago. Along the way she has been a journalist, radio maker, TV columnist, sax player, (sound) poet, translator, editor, collage artist, actress. She will soon publish a graphic novel set in the 24th century, “Terra to Titan”, part of an ongoing collaboration with a Dutch illustrator who lives in Berlin.
Moze has co-facilitated the Bespoken Word sessions in Clonakilty for the past 18 months. Sometimes from afar for wherever she plugs in her laptop is her home. Currently a digital nomad of no fixed abode, she has a temporary foothold in Cobh. Her overriding concern right now is the potential demise of the existing natural ecosystems (aka ecocide) on planet Earth.
Anne Barrett
Anne Barrett’s film Spring Cleaning, produced by Channel 4 &RTE in l986, launched her as a scriptwriter and dramatist following a period as a professional actor. Plays were produced by TEAM (theatre in education), Yew Theatre and by RTE and BBC4. Anne taught screenwriting at Ballyfermot Snr. College and worked on script commissions. Her feature Wild Horses received EU Media 11 support and collaboration with Emmy Award Director, Sturla Gunnarsson.
Her interest in design and environmental matters lead to a study of sustainable construction. Since moving to Kenmare, Anne has volunteered and developed projects with environmental groups and collaborated with cultural and environmental professionals. In 2016 she produced and co-wrote Kenmare Main Street, An Architectural Conservation Toolkit, a booklet on the architectural heritage of her adopted town.Her latest project is How Far West Can You Go? is a 75k memoir edited by Gillian Stern.
Anton Floyd
Anton Floyd Anton Floyd was born in Egypt and raised in the Cyprus. Educated in Ireland, he studied at Trinity College Dublin and University College Cork. He has lived and worked in the Eastern Mediterranean variously as a teacher, school principal, artistic director and producer. He is now teaching in Cork City and lives near Inchigeelagh.
Poems are widely published and forthcoming in Ireland and elsewhere. He is a several times prize-winner of the Irish Haiku Society International Competition; runner-up in the Snapshot Press Haiku Calendar Competition and most recently received a highly commended in the Anam Cara competition. His poems were included in the anthology ‘Between the Leaves’ (Arlen House) and the anthology Teachers Who Write (ed. Edward Denniston WTC 2018).
He edited ‘Remembrance Suite’, a chapbook of sonnets by Shirin Sabri (2018) and an international anthology of poems, ‘Point by Point’ (2018). His own debut collection of poems, Falling into Place, was published by Revival Press (2018).
Rae McKinley
Rae McKinlay is a lover of story. She is an advocate of the mythos way of wisdoms and has traveled the Celtic Lands in her quest for story wisdom and inspiration. Though she loves the tales of indigenous peoples, Rae writes her own stories which are often rooted in nature and the old ways of knowing. She has just released her CD “She Who Spins Stories” and is near completion of her debut book “When Crow Was White”.
Maria Gillen
Maria works through the medium of Drama and Story Telling and has designed and delivered workshops on Building Resilience, Exploring Difficult Community Issues and Team Building in several environments including Healthcare, Post Prison Services, Corporate and Community. Through this experience she has developed creative tools that allow clients to view their issues from different paradigms where they often discover they themselves have the answers that are needed.
Maria has been exploring the Medicinal Story through her work as a Dramatherapist and Story Teller with Cork Yarnspinners. She has collected many delightful tales and wisdoms from Cork based Community work. Maria delivered workshops on the ‘medicinal story’ in Olomouc University in the Chez Republic and been a guest lecturer in UCC and NUIM. She co-developed a ‘Resilience Through the Creative Arts’ 12 week program using the exploration of story as a mechanism to contact and grow self resilience. She is very interested in what the enduring myths and legends have to offer the modern world in terms of wisdom. In 2018 Maria featured as an emerging storyteller in the annual Cape Clear Storytelling festival and is due to do so again in 2019. In 2018 she won the The Mick McCarthy All Ireland Storytelling competition in Finugue with a reimagined Irish Tale called Nancy May, she was also a featured teller at the annual Listowel Writers Week. In 2017 she won the Butter Road Storytelling competition in Blarney with an original story about the Butter Roads.
Maria Gillen 086-812 4938 BeanSceal@gmail.com
Rude Judes
Judith Coffey scribbled for years but did nothing with her ditties.
Always one to support her friends and a serial volunteer of the Arts, she went along to the inaugural “Gab – Mixed Tape Night” in Coughlan’s, June 2016. Encouraged and enticed she finally read two ditties that October. Laughter and positive feedback inspired more writing and she is now a regular on their Set List. The Gab will be taking part in Cork’s Harbour Festival this June.
As part of Cork’s Midsummer Festival, Rude Jude will once again act as Host on the Crosstown Drift Bus Tour (nothing like a captive audience).
A resident of Cobh she regularly presents her poems at “Coliemore” The newly established ‘Cobh Readers and Writer’s Festival’ held their first poetry competition April 2019 and Judith was a Judge, also reading her poems at this Festival. Her observations of life are interspersed with humour and witticisms.