Irish Voices 2023

Cormac Culkeen is a writer of poetry, fiction, nonfiction and short stories. He lives in Galway, Ireland, and is currently studying an MA in Writing in NUI Galway, after completing a BA in Creative Writing. His poetry has been published in the Burning Bush, Skylight 47, Sonder, The Wild Word, Causeway, Apricot Press and Bindweed magazine. His debut collection, The Boy With the Radio, was recently published by Beir Bua Press in May 2022.

Kevin Sweeney fills the chair of the English department at SMCC where he has taught for almost 40 years.  He’s also an assistant poetry editor at The Cafe Review.  His most recent poetry book is Imminent Tribulations from Moon Pie Press.

Vinny Glynn-Steed from Galway, Ireland, is widely published at home and abroad. His work has appeared in journals and online in Mexico, the United States, Wales, England, and Northern Ireland. He has been featured in publications such as Windows 25th edition, Parhelion, and Cinnamon Press anthology. Other publications include Galway Review, Headstuff, Skylight 47, Crannog, Into the Void, Ogham Stone, and Ofi press to name but a few. His debut book was published in 2020 by Maytree Press. The same year he was the winner of the Allingham poetry competition.

Marita O’Neill lives in Portland, Maine, with her 10-pound muse with an attitude, Sweetpea. She received her MFA in Poetry from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She teaches students English at Yarmouth High School. She has had poems published in the Portland Press Herald’s “Deep Water” series, The Cafe Review, LEON Literary

Art Ó Súilleabháin was born in Connemara before spending his childhood in Boston USA. Art Now lives in Connemara having spent a year at CUA Washington as a Fulbright Scholar. He has published many poems and stories in Irish and in English in various collections including Poetry Ireland and the Ireland Chair of Poetry anthology. Art has won a number of awards for his poetry and has published his first collection in English ‘Mayflies in the Heather’ in 2021.  www.artosuilleabhain.com

Bernie Crawford’s poetry has been published extensively in New Irish Writing in the Irish Times, Poetry Ireland Review, the North magazine, Mslexia, and Stony Thursday Book, among others. Her debut collection was published in 2021 by Chaffinch Press. She is on the editorial board of the popular poetry magazine Skylight 47.

Steve Luttrell was born in Portland, Maine, where he served as that citys‘ Poet Laureate from 2009-2011. He is the founding editor of THE CAFE REVIEW, an internationally acclaimed art and poetry quarterly, founded in 1989. He has been widely published In numerous poetry journals and is the author of 6 books of poetry. He currently lives in Falmouth, Maine, with his wife, the Maine historian Krista Luttrell.

Brought up in the countryside outside Ennis in County Clare, Anne Donnellan lives in Galway, where she participates in the Kevin Higgins advanced poetry classes at the Galway Arts Centre. Her debut poetry collection, Witness was published in December 2022 by Revival Press Limerick and may be purchased online at https://limerickwriterscentre.com

Junior Stevens is one of the foremost exponents of the Concertina and Button Accordion in the Irish style, He’s spent two decades surrounded by the thriving Irish music community in America. In 2017, he was named a Master musician by the Maine Arts Commission, receiving an Artists Fellowship. He is a talented performer with a unique style and has been featured on many recordings and stages from local dance halls to the Library of Congress. Junior Stevens

Caitlin Finley learned much of her music from the great traditional fiddle players in the Philadelphia area. Her playing is greatly influenced by the music of Sligo fiddlers who recorded in New York in the 1920’s and 30’s. Caitlin has performed throughout the East Coast, including frequent performances alongside Mick Moloney’s Green Fields of America. Caitlin has played an active part in both the New York and Boston superb traditional music scene. Caitlin Finley

Robin Savage spent his childhood in California, Arizona and Galway, Ireland. Robin’s epic and vehement paintings weave together the Irish and American strands of his cultural heritage revealing the wonderful, interlacing complexities of personal and artistic ancestry. Emerging from this heritage, his paintings explore colonial resistance in Irish and Irish American history. He has shown his work widely and has also co-curated exhibitions at the Carrickahowley Gallery at the Maine Irish Heritage Center.To see more: Robin Savage

Kathleen Buchanan was educated and employed as a biologist prior to becoming a full time printmaker. She notes that both disciplines require skill at observing the environment, not only looking at but seeing what is going on around you; with biology and art as two dialects in the same language. Her connection to the natural world, landscapes and inhabitants provide not only appealing subjects, but also as metaphors for our human existence. Kathleen Buchanan

Chris Gray is a Maine-based oil painter and uilleann piper whose work explores memory and tradition. His studies in art and music include degrees from Maine College of Art, Bowdoin College and University College Cork (Ireland). His paintings are heavily influenced by his background in Traditional Irish Music. His exploration of memory and how it relates to artistic and musical traditions in which painting can revive, reify and transform memory that parallels revivals of traditional music. He has exhibited widely, including and curating exhibits at the Carrickahowley Gallery at the Center. Chris Gray