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<\/a><\/p>\n presents the Five Words competition winners:<\/i><\/p>\n Sin\u00e9ad McClure<\/strong> (1st<\/b><\/font>), Jill Munro<\/strong> (2nd<\/b><\/font>) & Laura Theis<\/strong> (3rd<\/b><\/font>)<\/p>\n (650+ nights of Poetry)<\/span><\/p>\n celebrating Five Words Volume XIV<\/strong> and an open-mic for Only Other Poets’ Poetry<\/strong><\/span><\/center><\/p>\n You can listen to the other shortlisted poets reading here<\/b><\/a>.<\/p>\n You can listen to the specially selected Pandemic Poems here<\/b><\/a>.<\/p>\n You can listen to the Five Word Challenge Anthology Contributors here<\/b><\/a>.<\/font><\/center><\/p>\n <\/center><\/p>\n Sin\u00e9ad has also written 15 dramas for the National Radio Children’s Service, RTEjr Radio on the themes of conservation and Ireland’s natural heritage. She often revisits these theme in her work and has a particular interest in wildlife conservation. In December, 2020 Sin\u00e9ad received a Professional Development Award from the Arts Council of Ireland to fund mentoring and research towards building her first poetry collection. Sin\u00e9ad live in rural County Sligo, with her husband and their two border collies. Jill won the \u00d3 Bh\u00e9al Five Words International Poetry competition 2017\/18. Jill’s first collection Man from La Paz<\/i> was published in 2015 by Green Bottle Press. She won the Fair Acre Press Pamphlet Competition 2015 with ‘The Quilted Multiverse’, published April 2016. Jill was awarded a Hawthornden Fellowship for 2018. She lives and writes in the depths of Ashdown Forest.<\/font><\/p>\n Her work has been widely anthologised, appears in a variety of literary journals from Strange Horizons<\/i> to Mslexia<\/i>, and has been published in the UK, Ireland, Belgium, Germany, Canada and the U.S. An AM Heath Prize recipient, she has also won the Hammond House International Literary Award for Poetry and the 2020 Mogford Short Story Prize. She was highly commended for the 2020 Acumen Poetry Prize and the 2020 Geoff Stevens Memorial Poetry Prize, as well as a finalist in over twenty other international literary competitions.<\/font><\/p>\n The judge for 2021\/2022 is Maurice Riordan<\/a><\/b>. For submission guidelines and previous winners, visit the competition page here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.obheal.ie\/fivewordscomp\/14thAnniversaryNoticeSm.jpg\")
<\/span>\u00d3 Bh\u00e9al’s 14th Anniversary<\/strong> event celebrates the launch of Five Words Volume XIV<\/em> and the winners of our 8th Five Words International Poetry competition. We will also have a reading of lockdown\/pandemic poems from the competition specially selected by judge Grace Wells<\/strong>. Other shortlisted poets will also read on the night – as will contributors to \u00d3 Bh\u00e9al’s Monday night Five Word Challenges held over the previous 12 months. The anniversary open-mic is reserved for poems written by other poets<\/em>, so bring a favourite or two!<\/span>
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<\/font>Sin\u00e9ad McClure<\/strong> is a writer, radio producer, and illustrator. Her poetry has been published in Poethead, Live Encounters ~ Poetry & Writing, Crossways Literary Journal, The Cabinet of Heed, Dodging the Rain, StepAway Magazine<\/i> and The Ekphrastic Review<\/i>. <\/p>\n
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<\/font>Jill Munro<\/strong> has been published in major poetry magazines including The Frogmore Press, Popshot Quarterly, The Fenland Reed<\/i> and The Rialto<\/i> and her work has also been anthologised by The Emma Press, Candlestick Press, Paper Swans Press<\/i> & Calder Valley Press<\/i>. <\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.obheal.ie\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/LauraTheisSm.jpg\")
<\/font>Laura Theis<\/strong> grew up in Germany, moved to the UK a decade ago, and writes poems, stories and songs in her second language. She has an MSt (Distinction) in Creative Writing from Oxford University. Her debut poetry collection how to extricate yourself<\/i> (Dempsey&Windle, 2020) was selected as the winner of the 2020 Brian Dempsey Memorial Prize by the Poetry Society’s Paul McGrane. <\/p>\n
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<\/span>The 9th<\/strong> Five Words International Poetry Competition<\/span><\/strong> will begin on Tuesday the 13th of April 2021 (at midday GMT) and runs for 41 weeks, until the 25th of January 2022. <\/span><\/p>\n
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