Online Festival Stage

& Via Facebook
(facebook.com/winter.warmer)
& Via YouTube
(www.youtube.com/OBheal)
Ó Bhéal’s 10th Winter Warmer (and 2nd hybrid) festival presents over 30 poets from seven countries. Most of these featured guests will read/perform in-person at Nano Nagle Place, with others appearing virtually. All events will be free to access via our online Festival Stage and usual social media channels. In-person audience capacity is 120.
The festival will host two poetry workshops, music from Fiona Kelleher (in-person), a Round Table discussion centered on relationships between Human & Non-Human Life in Port Cities Poetry, and a Closed-Mic set for poets who have featured in Ó Bhéal’s regular open-mic sessions during 2022.
The shortlist and prize-giving for Ó Bhéal’s 10th International Poetry-Film Competition will be screened and simulcast, as will an additional, special selection of poetry-films made in Ireland.
This year’s Winter Warmer will also host the 2022 All-Ireland Poetry Slam Championship Final, featuring 12 poets (three from each province) who will compete over three rounds. This is the only ticketed event of the festival, to book your seat please visit our eventbrite page.
(€5 suggested donation)
7.00pm – 9.00pm
Writing with the More-than-Human with Eleanor Rees
SPACES AVAILABLE
Join widely published Liverpool-based poet Eleanor Rees for an online workshop to explore ‘writing with the more-than-human’. We will consider the definition of the term in contemporary philosophy, and the implications for poetry writing. How do poets write with an environment, rather than about it? Can a place, creature or apparition intercede in the writing of a poem? What does this mean for our understanding of the lyric voice?
Eleanor will lead a series of original writing exercises based on the creative process behind her fifth collection of poems, Tam Lin of the Winter Park (Guillemot Press, 2022). The poems communicated with a parkland and beyond to create a posthuman lyric voice. There will also be plenty of time for discussion and feedback of work-in-progress created in the workshop.
Eleanor Rees is the author of four collections of poetry. Her most recent is The Well at Winter Solstice (Salt, 2019) and her fifth collection is Tam Lin of the Winter Park (Guillemot Press, 2022). Eleanor is working on an academic book on Posthuman Poetic Practice and has worked extensively as a poet in communities. Eleanor is senior lecturer in creative writing at Liverpool Hope University and lives in Liverpool.
1.00pm – 3.00pm
Intercultural Connections in Eco-poetry with Yairen Jerez Columbié
SPACES AVAILABLE
To book a place, please email info@obheal.ie
In this workshop we will take words out of their context and draw inspiration from the environment and the natural sciences to transform them on the white page.
We will also look at the work of poets such as Jane Lovell, Kei Miller, Legna Rodríguez Iglesias and Urayoán Noel, to make new connections by moving between diverse languages, cultures, disciplines, environments and poetic forms.
Everyone welcome.
Yairen Jerez Columbié grew up and studied in Havana, Cuba, before living in Catalonia and Ireland. Her first poetry collection Fósiles de lluvia was published in 2022 by Betania, in Madrid, through a Trinity College Dublin Association and Trust Grant. Her poetry has appeared in Revista Temporales of New York University’s MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish, Anthropocene, Altavoz Cultural, Aigne, Eñe: Revista para Leer and The Poetry Review. She holds a PhD in Hispanic Studies and is also an essayist and researcher teaching Latin American Studies and Intercultural Communication at Trinity College Dublin.
5.00pm – 6.30pm
Fiona Kelleher | Mícheál Ó hAodha
Marion F. Morrison (via zoom) | Maoilios Caimbeul

Improvisation and collaboration are key elements of her practice. Creating sound worlds that reference and celebrate the natural world and it’s beauty is an area of special interest. Work includes I am A little Boat for Early Years (performance and recording), Do Chuala Ceol (film with live score for voice and piano) 2020 and Cocoon, an animation released in 2021. Fiona is a member of the Arts Council Peer Panel. She mentors artists and musicians working in Early Years Arts and Arts for Health and Community Arts practice. She is currently writing new music and continues to research, perform and also facilitate for Early Years audiences.
Is Gaillmheach é
Mícheál Ó hAodha a chaith tréimhse fada ag cur faoi i dtuaisceart Shasana. File Gaeilge agus aistritheoir. I measc na n-aistriúchán atá déanta aige tá This Road of Mine (BÁC: Lilliput, 2020); Seán Ó Ríordáin: Life and Work (Mercier: 2019); Exiles (Parthian: RA, 2020); I am Lewy (Bullaun Press, 2022). Leabhair filíochta leis, foilsithe: Dúchas Dóchasach (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007); Slán le hÉirinn (Coiscéim, 2012); Leabhar Dubh an tSneachta (2015); Leabhar na nAistear I (Coiscéim, 2017); Leabhar na nAistear II (Coiscéim, 2019); agus Leabhar na nAistear III (2022).ó

Rugadh
Marion NìcIlleMhoire ann am Barraigh agus chaidh a togail ann an Glaschu. Rinn i ceum MA agus M Litt ann an Oilthigh Ghlaschu agus bha i na neach-teagaisg ann a Glaschu agus anns Na h-Eileanan Siar. Ann a 2017 bhuannaich i Duais nan Sgrìobhadairean Ùra airson bàrdachd bho Chomhairle nan Leabhraichean, ann a com-pàirteachas le Urras Leabhraichean na h-Alba. Choisin an leabhhar bàrdachd aice, Adhbhar Ar Sòlais an darna àite airson Duais Dhòmhnaill Meek ann a 2018. Tha i an dràsta a’ sgrìobhadh bàrdachd agus sgeulachdan ghoirid.Photo by Sara Bain

’S ann às an Eilean Sgitheanach a tha am bàrd
Maoilios Caimbeul, a bhios a’ sgrìobhadh airson a’ chuid as motha ann an Gàidhlig na h-Alba. Cheumnaich e bho Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann ann an 1976 agus às dèidh sin bha e na thidsear Gàidhlig àrd-sgoile. Bha e na sgrìobhaiche còmhnaidh ann an Sabhal Mòr Ostaig ann an 2008. Am measg sgrìobhaidhean bàrdachd o chionn ghoirid tha Gràs / Grace (Handsel Press 2019), An Dà Anam / In Two Minds (Clò Dhùnain 2017) agus Tro Chloich na Sùla (Clàr, 2014). Sgrìobh e eachdraidh a bheatha, The Transition of a Gaelic Poet from Sceptic to Believer (2011) còmhla ri a bhean Mairead. Tha an leabhar a’ sealltainn na h-ùidh a th’ aige anns a’ cheangal eadar creideamh agus saidheans / feallsanachd. Tha e air ochd nobhailean goirid a sgrìobhadh do dhaoine òga. Thàinig cruinneachadh de sgeulachdan goirid, Dòrlach Sìl (Luath Press) a-mach bhuaithe an-uiridh. Tro na bliadhnaichean, tha e air grunn dhuaisean a ghleidheadh airson bàrdachd. Chaidh a chrùnadh mar bhàrd a’ Chomuinn Ghàidhealaich ann an 2002 agus tha e air a bhith na Bhàrd Urramach do Chomann Gàidhlig Inbhir Nis bho 2012.
7.00pm – 8.30pm
Yairen Jerez Columbié | Forrest Gander (via zoom) | Catherine Foley
Yairen Jerez Columbié grew up and studied in Havana, Cuba, before living in Catalonia and Ireland. Her first poetry collection Fósiles de lluvia was published in 2022 by Betania, in Madrid, through a Trinity College Dublin Association and Trust Grant. Her poetry has appeared in Revista Temporales of New York University’s MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish, Anthropocene, Altavoz Cultural, Aigne, Eñe: Revista para Leer and The Poetry Review. She holds a PhD in Hispanic Studies and is also an essayist and researcher teaching Latin American Studies and Intercultural Communication at Trinity College Dublin.
A writer and translator with degrees in geology and literature, Forrest Gander was born in the Mojave Desert and taught at Harvard University and then Brown University where he was the AK Seaver Professor of Literary Arts and Comparative Literature. He’s the recipient of The Pulitzer Prize, Best Translated Book Award, and fellowships from the Library of Congress, Guggenheim, and US Artists foundations. His books, often concerned with ecology and intimacy, include Be With (New Directions, 2018), the desert novel The Trace (New Directions, 2014) and — most recently — Your Nearness (Arc Publications, 2022).
Gander’s many translations include Alice Iris Red Horse: Poems by Gozo Yoshimasu and It Must be a Misunderstanding by Coral Bracho. His essay collection, A Faithful Existence, considers translation and the relation between science and literature. His collaborative book with Australian poet/activist John Kinsella, Redstart: an Ecological Poetics, is frequently cited by scholars and writers in reference to “eco-poetics.”
Catherine Foley is a full-time writer, journalist and broadcaster. She is a former staff journalist with The Irish Times. Her book, Beyond the Breakwater: Memories of Home, winner of the 2018 Waterford News & Star Green Room Award for Best New Book, was published by Mercier Press the same year. She is a regular contributor to RTÉ’s Sunday Miscellany program. Her first poetry collection, Ag Marú Maicréal, was published by Coiscéim in 2019. Cuisle an Chósta, her collection of newspaper and radio columns, won first prize at the Oireachtas Literary Awards in 2016: it was subsequently published by LeabhairCOMHAR in 2020 and became the first non-fiction title in the popular Foghlaimeoir Fásta (adult learner) series. She has scripted, presented and co-produced a number of documentaries for the Irish-language broadcasting station, TG4, including programmes about the writer Molly Keane, the singer Frank Patterson, the photographer Annie Brophy and the balladeer Tom Clancy, all made by the An Corsaiceach company, which she co-founded with her sister, RoseAnn Foley.
Is scríbhneoir cruthaitheach, file, craoltóir agus iriseoir í Catherine Foley. Foilsíodh a céad bailiúchán filíochta, Ag Marú Maicréal, i 2019. Foilsíodh a leabhar Beyond the Breakwater: Memories of Home i 2018. Foilsíodh bailiúchán dá cholún raidió agus nuachtán, dár teideal Cuisle an Chósta in Aibreán 2020 ina dtugann sí léargas ar shaol laethúil phobail cheantar na Rinne, agus ar chultúr agus oidhreacht na háite: bhuaigh an bailiúchán seo céad duais ag Comórtais Liteartha an Oireachtais 2016. Tá duaiseanna scríbhneoireachta buaite aici ag an Oireachtas, ina measc bhuaigh sí an chéad duais i 2003, dá saothair do dhaoine fásta, An Cailín Rua. Tá láithreoireacht agus léiritheoireacht raidió agus teilifíse déanta aici, an sraith teilifíse Pobal ag Guí ar TG4 ina measc. Is craoltóir raidió, iar-léachtóir san iriseoireacht ag Coláiste na hOllscoile, Corcaigh agus iar-bhall foirne de chuid The Irish Times í.
9.00pm – 10.30pm
Isaac Xubín | Allie Rigby (via zoom) | Jennie Feldman
Photo by Davide Cabaleiro
Born in A Coruña (Galicia, Spain) in 1978 and based in Sheffield (UK), Isaac Xubín adopted as a literary surname the toponym of the small village of Santa María de Oleiros, where he spent childhood summers. His life and creative work has been influenced by relocations and languages. He holds a degree in Galician Philology and an MA in Language Policy and Planning. He has published three collections of poetry, Con gume de folla húmida (Edicións Sotelo Blanco, 2012), A cadencia da fractura (Edicions Xerais, 2017) and Xenealoxía dun intruso (Editorial Galaxia, 2020) and several translations from Basque, Catalan, Spanish, Irish and English.
As a teacher and researcher, he wrote a Galician-Basque dictionary and taught Galician Language and Culture in the Irish Centre for Galician Studies (UCC). He has also been awarded with numerous literary and translation prizes, his first novel, Non hai outro camiño (Edicións Xerais, 2016) was rewarded with the Spanish Critics Prize in the Galician Language.

Moonscape for a Child is her first book of poetry (Bored Wolves, 2023).

Her poems range widely – from Greece and the Levant to France and Ireland – and have appeared in various journals. She is a Hawthornden Fellow and is based in Oxford.
11.00am – 12.00pm
(A single screening of 16 films)
Selected from Ó Bhéal’s 10th International Poetry-Film Competition entries
Many of these sixteen, specially selected Irish-made poetry-films could easily have made the (highly competitive) competition shortlist. Nonetheless they are worthy compositions which we are delighted to present.
This screening will be viewed by a live audience at Nano Nagle Place, Cork & streamed via our website festival stage and Facebook & YouTube channels.
You can view the selection at this link. The films were chosen from 173 submissions received from 100 filmmakers in 33 countries. For this year’s competition shortlist please follow this link.
12.30pm – 2.00pm
Eleanor Rees (via zoom) | Matthew Geden
Greg Quiery (via zoom) | Mary Noonan
Poems from Port Cities
Ports as Portals, Liminal Encounters, and Infrastructure Space
Port Cities are liminal places of encounter, of fluidity, of transition. Sea and land meet there, as do all the living creatures that cross seas and rivers. Human and non-human life intertwine in port cities as they do in few other places. Ports are also infrastructure spaces, where space is organized to serve the purposes of commerce and of extraction in the spirit of capitalism. Therefore, port cities are also the location of clashes of interests and convictions, of struggles over ethics and politics, over land, water and air.
Four poets join us from the port cities of Liverpool and Cork: Greg Quiery and Eleanor Rees share poems that explore spaces around the Mersey; Matthew Geden and Mary Noonan share poems exploring the ports and shorelines in and around Cork.
The event combines a poetry reading with a reflection and discussion on poems that emerge situated in the ports and shorelines that are portals between different elements, forms of life, and ways of life.
Eleanor Rees is the author of four collections of poetry. Her most recent is The Well at Winter Solstice (Salt, 2019) and her fifth collection is Tam Lin of the Winter Park (Guillemot Press, 2022). Eleanor is working on an academic book on Posthuman Poetic Practice and has worked extensively as a poet in communities. Eleanor is senior lecturer in creative writing at Liverpool Hope University and lives in Liverpool.

Other publications include Kinsale Poems, a chapbook of translations of poems by Apollinaire and Fruit (Survision Books, 2020). In November 2019 he was Writer in Residence at Nanjing Literature Centre, China and held the same position for Cork County Library and Arts Service from 2020-2022. He has also read at a number of festivals and events including one at the Sorbonne University in Paris.

“The people in his poems breathe on the page as Quiery captures the poetry inherent in our daily lives – of speech, of expression, of place – and makes us take notice. He understands that humour has its place but he doesn’t play to the gallery. There is a musicality in these poems that conjures the poet’s presence; he’s speaking to us, an intimate sharing of words and worlds. Read them and laugh; read them and weep.” – Sarah MacLennan, Head of Creative Writing, Liverpool John Moores University (on reviewing A Stray Dog Following)


She has co-edited a collection of essays on performance poetry, special issues on the poetics of resistance and on poetry in public spaces, and is currently co-editing with Joost de Bloois and Jim Hicks a forthcoming special issue of Critical Comparative Studies (Edinburgh U.P.), on Contrarian Speech. She is a member of the research project Poetry and Politics II which is based at the University of Vigo, Galicia, Spain.

3.00pm – 4.00pm
Ó Bhéal’s annual Closed Mic session showcases ten poets who have contributed to Ó Bhéal’s open-mic sessions on Monday nights, over the past year. This year’s line-up includes Jeff Cottrill, Catherine Badin, S’phongo, Róisín Leggett Bohan, Antonio Di Mare, Máire Stephens, Brendan Duffin, Ségolène, Pam Campbell and Jason J Fisher.
7.00pm – 8.30pm
Fiona Kelleher | Pippa Little
Karla Brundage (via zoom) | Scott McKendry

Improvisation and collaboration are key elements of her practice. Creating sound worlds that reference and celebrate the natural world and it’s beauty is an area of special interest. Work includes I am A little Boat for Early Years (performance and recording), Do Chuala Ceol (film with live score for voice and piano) 2020 and Cocoon, an animation released in 2021. Fiona is a member of the Arts Council Peer Panel. She mentors artists and musicians working in Early Years Arts and Arts for Health and Community Arts practice. She is currently writing new music and continues to research, perform and also facilitate for Early Years audiences.


Photo by Pata Ali Love Club

Her poetry, short stories and essays have been widely anthologized and can be found in Hip Mama, Literary Kitchen, sPARKLE & bLINK, Lockjaw, Nervous Ghost Press, Bamboo Ridge Press, Vibe and Konch Literary Magazine. She holds an MA in Education from San Francisco State University and an MFA in poetry from Mills College. In 2020, her poem Alabama Dirt was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She is the author of two books: Swallowing Watermelons and Mulatta-Not So Tragic. Her work can be found at westoaklandtowestafrica.com as well as on karlabrundage.com

9.00pm – 10.30pm
Marcus Mac Conghail | Joelle Taylor (via zoom) | Moyra Donaldson

Between 2014 and 2018 Marcus wrote, recorded, released and performed with three separate bands, Imlé, Bruadar, and Thatchers of the Acropolis. In 2014 he published his first collection of poetry Ceol Baile, which received the Michael Hartnett Poetry Award. He is delighted to be back at the Winter Warmer! Up Cork!
Is é Spásas an bailiúchán dánta is déanaí le
Marcus Mac Conghail agus is iad Coiscéim a d’fhoilsigh in 2021. Dhein a mhac, Naoise, ceol a chur le roinnt des na dánta agus tá dhá rian acu seo, chomh maith le físeáin, eisithe go dtí seo faoi theideal an leabhair. In 2020 chuir sé bailiúchán de chaoga aiste le scríbhneoirí nua agus aitheanta araon in eagar, agus foilsíodh iad faoin teideal, Meascra ón Aer. Is ceoltóir agus cumadóir amhrán é Marcus leis agus tá roinnt mhaith taifeadtaí déanta aige le bannaí éagsúla. Bronnadh Gradam Michael Hartnett ar a chéad bhailiúchán dánta, Ceol Baile, in 2015.
Photo by Roman Manfredi
Joelle Taylor is the author of 4 collections of poetry. Her most recent collection C+NTO & Othered Poems (The Westbourne Press, 2021) won the 2021 T.S Eliot Prize and was the subject of a Radio 4 arts documentary Butch. C+NTO was nominated for the Rathbone Folio Prize, longlisted for the Ondaatje Prize, and has been shortlisted for the Polari Book Prize. It was named by The Telegraph, The New Statesman, The White Review & Times Literary Supplement as one of the best poetry books of the year, as well as DIVA magazine’s Book of the Month, and awarded 5 stars by the Morning Star.
She has recently completed a book tour of Australia including Sydney Opera House (March 2022). C+NTO is currently being adapted for theatre with a view to touring. A former UK SLAM Champion she founded the national youth poetry slams SLAMbassadors through the Poetry Society in 2001, remaining its Artistic Director until 2018. She is a co-curator and host of Out-Spoken Live, resident at the Southbank Centre, and an editor at Out-Spoken Press. She is completing her memoirs for publication in 2024, as well as a novel of interconnecting stories The Night Alphabet. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and the 2022 Saboteur Spoken Word Artist of the Year.

“There is fire, hail and a streak of white lightning running through these extraordinary poems. Bone House kept me awake at night. One of the finest collections I have read in a long time.”
11.30am – 2.00pm
(Two Screenings: 11.30am-12.30pm and 1.00pm-2.00pm)
Ó Bhéal’s 10th International Poetry-Film Competition
This year’s shortlist of 30 films was chosen from 173 submissions received from 100 filmmakers in 33 countries. The shortlist represents 17 countries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, England, Germany, Ireland, Isle of Man, Northern Ireland, Philippines, Portugal, South Africa, The Netherlands, Ukraine, UK, USA, Wales and Zimbabwe.
This year’s judges Colm Scully and Paul Casey, will select one winner to receive the Ó Bhéal award for best poetry-film, designed by glass artist Michael Ray. The winner will be announced directly after the shortlist screenings.
You can view the complete shortlist via this link. These screenings will be viewed by a live audience at Nano Nagle Place, Cork & streamed via our website festival stage and Facebook & YouTube channels.
3.00pm – 6.00pm

With special guest performance from reigning All-Ireland Slam Champion
Shaunna Lee Lynch
Twelve of the island’s regional slam champions (three from each province) will compete over three rounds to see who will be crowned All-Ireland Champion.
Tickets are on sale HERE at Eventbrite.
General Admission tickets are €10.00.
The event emcee is Stanley Notte
Shaunna Lee Lynch is a writer, performer, director and producer from Cork. As a spoken word artist she has performed at many events around Ireland and abroad, including: Cork Midsummer Festival, First Fortnight, Electric Picnic and Ó Bhéal, among others. She is the current All-Ireland Poetry Slam Champion, having won the national competition in 2019. Shaunna studied Drama in Ireland’s Conservatory of Music and Drama (TU Dublin) and has been involved in many theatre and film projects over the past decade.
She wrote, co-produced and acted in the play Wishful Thinking which ran as part of the Dublin Fringe Festival and the Cork Arts Theatre Emerging Artists Programme 2019. A collection of her poetry was published in the chapbook paper incantations (2019) as part of Ó Bhéal’s spoken worlds series, supported by Cork City Council. In 2022, Shaunna completed a Masters Degree in Screenwriting for Film and Television from IADT, Dún Laoghaire. Her work plays within the realms of satire, fantastical escapism and futurism. Reoccurring themes include; eco-anxiety, gender, mental health, and mysticism.

Marguerite Quinlan placed third in the 2022 Connacht Poetry Slam in Sligo. Marguerite loves words, walks by the sea, through the trees and sounds that resonate, question and quieten. She writes short, usually, and tries to listen long.

Margaret is from Tubbercurry, South Sligo originally where she grew up on a small farm and she often quotes the people, family, and scenery of South Sligo as being her muse. In the past she has acted and sang with numerous companies and groups across Ireland and the UK and was the recipient of the John Hartley award for poetry and prose at East 15 Drama School, London in 2011.









He is the current Leinster Poetry Slam champion. As Leon puts it, “I write poems and stories for people that may feel left behind by the mainstream culture”.




In 2020 his work was broadcasted on RTÉ Arena, he performed at the First Fortnight Festival, and represented Cork in the Cork-Coventry Twin Cities Exchange, for which he released a chapbook, southern syllables, co-authored by Molly Twomey. In 2019 Poetry Ireland selected him for Versify and he performed at Dublin Fringe. He placed second in the 2019 All Ireland Poetry Slam Final (and is working through his feelings about it with his therapist). His work is published in Automatic Pilot, A New Ulster and Contemporary Poetry.
The Arts Council of Ireland, Cork City Council, Foras na Gaeilge,
Poetry and Politics II @ University of Vigo, Dunnes Stores, Forum
Publications, Colmcille, Arc Publications, Cork City Libraries, Poetry Ireland,
Paradiso, The Long Valley and the UCC School of English and Digital Humanities.

