A great time was had by all in Limerick

I read at the White House Poetry Literary Revival in the White House pub, O’Connell Street, Limerick on Wednesday night. I have to say it was an very enjoyable night, due in part to the friendly welcome from hosts Dominic Taylor and Tom McCarthy, but also to the wonderful poetry I heard from the floor before I got up to do my own stint. White House works on the basis of an open mic, with a guest poet contributing at the end. They have a very loyal following and have been going for the past six years, which is a huge achievement in the fickle world of poetry. All tribute to Dominic and his colleague Barney Sheehan, for the stellar work in keeping the whole thing together.

You can find a podcast of the reading here: http://tinyurl.com/y8565yz

Reading at White House Poetry Revival, Limerick, November 11th

Hi here … Delighted to be reading next week at the White House at the prestigious Poetry Revival on O’Connell Street, Limerick City. Events kick off at 9pm. Thanks to Dominic and Barney for inviting me.

Earagail Festival reading in July

I was asked to curate a day’s events at the Earagail Arts Festival and and delighted to announce that on 11th July, in the splendid surroundings of Glenveagh national park, we have a packed programme of workshops and readings. The event is called The Muse of The Seven Sisters and takes place at Glenveagh Castle Drawing Room. At 2pm there will be a poetry workshop with Aifric MacAodha, at 4pm a Script Writing workshop with Peter Salisbury, and from 8pm to 10pm there will be poetry and music from Celia de Freine, Paul Perry, Dermot McLaughlin and Nessa O’Mahony. Further details can be found on www.eaf.ie/spoken.html

Launch of new verse novel

I’ve just launched my new verse novel, In Sight of Home, which is published by Salmon Poetry. It tells the story of an Irish woman who emigrates with her family to Australia in the 1850s; there’s also a framing narrative featuring a 40-something 21st century Irish poet living on Anglesey. More details can be found on the Salmon website at http://www.salmonpoetry.com

Association of Writing Programs Conference, New York City, 30th January – 2nd February

Nessa O’Mahony has just attended the AWP annual conference in New York, and took part in a panel discussion on creative writing research. The Conference was attended by a staggering 7,500 people and featured some wonderful readings from the like of Galway Kinnell, Carolyn Fourche, Sharon Olds, Frank McCourt, Billy Collins and Martin Amis.

Workshops / teaching

Nessa is currently teaching creative writing for UCD’s adult education programme. Her course, “Women Writers, Writing Women: Rooms of our Own” focuses on the work of a number of women writers from the 19th and 20th centuries while at the same time encouraging participants to develope creative responses to that work. For more information, visit www.ucd.ie/adulted

Nessa is also teaching creative writing on the adult education programme at St. Colmcille’s Community College, Knocklyon, Dublin 16.

Publications

Nessa has published two poetry collections.

Bar Talk (iTaLiCs Press) in 1999.

Bar Talk is out of print but can be downloaded online from the wonderful Irish Literary Revival website at http://www.irishliteraryrevival.com.

Trapping a Ghost (Bluechrome) in 2005.

Copies of Trapping a Ghost can be ordered on the Bluechrome website at http://www.bluechrome.co.uk

A third collection, The Side Road To Star, is due from Bluechrome in 2008.

She has also completed a Verse Novel, titled In Sight of Home.  When she gets up the nerve, she’ll send it out!

Nessa’s blog and website

Hi there world.

I’ve decided to create my own web space. People kept asking me if I had a website and I thought it was about time I dipped my own toe in the cyber-pool. Here I’ll post news of events, readings, workshops and anything else that strikes me as half-interesting. There’ll be links to interesting websites, excerpts from new work and work in progress (gulp) and anything else that strikes me. I’m hoping my friends and fellow writers will get involved too. So, enjoy!