Enjoying my exciting role at UL

Happy Poetry Month! I'm delighted to report that my post as Meskell UL-Fifty Poet in Residence at the University of Limerick’s Creative Writing programme is gloriously busy and immensely enjoyable. The role is quite specific: I teach on aspects of poetic technique on the MA in Creative Writing, supervise MA students, offer feedback on their writing and contribute to various literary and outreach projects on the campus. My colleagues have all been so warm and welcoming since I started on 31st January and, because my passion for teaching poetry and mentoring younger writers is part of my own poetry practice, the combination of the creative and the academic is an ideal fit. It became apparent to me, early on, that there is a significant need for this kind of work at UL, both to mentor and support new creative writers, specifically poets, and to play a role in positioning poetry as an integral part of the University. In response to requests from the students about particular areas of interest, I enjoyed leading a series of poetry seminars for all MA students on aspects of prosody and poetic technique that focused on: tone, voice, diction, building tension and surprise, line breaks, punctuation, revision, ending poems and preparing a manuscript for publication. These 2-hour seminars were part-lecture, part-practical workshop and included in-class freewriting and the provision of feedback on poems in progress. I was recently interviewed about my role and about the importance of poetry by Jim Miley of the Association of Irish Universities and you can view our brief conversation here

I am also delighted to be part of a series of five women poets invited to read for the Limerick Literary Festival in honour of the wonderful Kate O’Brien and to celebrate ‘April is Poetry Month’ in Limerick. Here is my poem entitled “Time”

My next post will give more information about events I am taking part in for Poetry Month.