{"id":20364,"date":"2024-02-28T15:28:34","date_gmt":"2024-02-28T15:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.obheal.ie\/blog\/?page_id=20364"},"modified":"2024-06-05T13:37:23","modified_gmt":"2024-06-05T13:37:23","slug":"guests-102-apr-may-2024","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.obheal.ie\/blog\/guest-poets\/guests-102-apr-may-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Guests> (102) Apr\/May 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"
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April and May<\/strong><\/center><\/p>\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n

8th April<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

\u00d3 Bh\u00e9al’s 17th Anniversary<\/strong><\/span>
\n(celebrating 696 nights of Poetry)<\/span><\/p>\n

presents Five Words competition winners:<\/i><\/p>\n

Derek Sellen<\/strong> (1st<\/b><\/font>), Mary Anne Smith Sellen<\/strong> (2nd<\/b><\/font>) & Laura Theis<\/strong> (3rd<\/b><\/font>)<\/p>\n

featuring Five Words Volume XVII<\/strong> and an open-mic for Only Other Poets’ Poetry<\/strong><\/span><\/center><\/p>\n

<\/span>

Congratulations to 1st Place winner <\/p>\n

<\/em><\/font> Derek Sellen<\/font>!<\/strong><\/center>\u00d3 Bh\u00e9al’s 17th Anniversary<\/strong> event celebrates the launch of Five Words Volume XVII<\/em> and the winners of our 11th Five Words International Poetry competition. The winners and shortlist of 12<\/strong><\/a> were selected by judge Theo Dorgan<\/a><\/strong>. Shortlisted poets will also read on the night – as will contributors to \u00d3 Bh\u00e9al’s Monday night Five Word Challenges held over the past 12 months. The anniversary open-mic is reserved for poems written by other poets<\/em>, so bring a favourite or two!<\/span><\/p>\n

You can listen to the Five Words Vol XVII contributors<\/em> reading here<\/a>.<\/center><\/p>\n
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<\/font>Derek Sellen<\/strong> <\/font>(1st<\/strong>)<\/font> is from Canterbury, UK, and has written poetry, short stories and plays over many years. He has written on a wide range of subjects from Indian cave-paintings to the myth of the Minotaur, from a Chinese street-seller to Spanish art. He has read his work widely, in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Italy and, in better times. Russia. <\/p>\n

His writing has won many awards over the years including first prizes in Poets Meet Politics, Poets Meet Painters, Rhyme International, the Wirral Festival Play Competition, and several other competitions. His work has twice won Canterbury Festival Poet of the Year and twice previously won \u00d3 Bh\u00e9al Five Words. It has also won prizes in Poetry on the Lake, Bristol International Short Story Award and the National Poetry Competition among others. <\/p>\n

His first collection was The Arch and its Shadow<\/i> (2009) and he is currently preparing a third collection. His collection The Other Guernica \u2013 poems inspired by Spanish art<\/i> was published by Cultured Llama Publishing in 2018 and was a finalist in the Poetry Book Awards 2020. It has been favourably reviewed: \u2018This is a work of outstanding richness and variety, imagination, thought, storytelling …\u2019<\/em> – Professor Janet Montefiore
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<\/font><\/font>Mary Anne Smith Sellen<\/strong> <\/font>(2nd<\/strong>)<\/font> is a poet and painter from Canterbury in Kent. Her work has been recognized in competitions including Sentinel Literary Quarterly November 2017 (1st), and the \u00d3 Bh\u00e9al Five Words Competition 2019 (1st). She has been widely published, both in print and online, including Sentinel Literary Quarterly, Grey Hen Press, Confluence, Dream Catcher, Beautiful Dragons, Wildfire Words<\/em> and Linen Press<\/em>. <\/p>\n

Mary Anne’s first full poetry collection The shape of our lives<\/em> was longlisted in the 2023 Indigo Dreams First Collection competition. She is currently working on poems for a new pamphlet, themed around memories and photographs from her 1960s childhood. Mary Anne is a regular reader at events and festivals.
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<\/font>Laura Theis<\/strong> <\/font>(3rd<\/strong>)<\/font> writes poetry, songs, and fiction in her second language. Her work appears in POETRY, Oxford Poetry, Magma, Rattle, Aesthetica, Mslexia<\/em>, and others, and has received accolades such as the Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize, the Oxford Brookes Poetry Prize, the Poets & Players Prize, the Hammond House International Literary Award, the AM Heath Prize, the Mogford Short Story Prize, as well as a Forward Prize nomination. <\/p>\n

Laura’s poetry debut collection how to extricate yourself<\/em> (Dempsey & Windle, 2020) was the winner of the Brian Dempsey Memorial Prize, an Oxford Poetry Library Book of the Month, and an Elgin Award nominee. Her collection A Spotter’s Guide To Invisible Things<\/em> (Live Canon, 2023) won the Live Canon Collection Prize and received the Arthur Welton Award from the Society of Authors. A new poetry collection from Broken Sleep Books and her children’s debut Poems From A Witch’s Pocket<\/em> are forthcoming in 2025.<\/font><\/p>\n

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You can watch a video of the event here<\/font><\/b>
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