Ballinasloe artists’ group to host poetry reading

A Ballinasloe artists' collective is to host a poetry reading in Guillane's Hotel on Friday November 26. The event, which will feature the work of Mary Mullen and Patrick Chapman, will take place in the hotel's Garbally Suite at 7pm. Mary Mullen lives in Ballinderreen, Co. Galway, with her daughter Lily. This year she published ‘Zephyr' - a collection of poems about Mary's childhood in Alaska and mothering Lily, a lively Galway girl who has Down syndrome. Writer Geraldine Mills said about Zephyr, ‘I have never read a book with so much love in it.' Roscommon born Patrick Chapman's latest poetry collection is ‘The Darwin Vampires', the title poem of which was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. His earlier collections are ‘Jazztown', ‘The New Pornography', ‘Breaking Hearts' and ‘Traffic Lights' and ‘A Shopping Mall on Mars'. He has also written a book of stories, ‘The Wow Signal'; an award-winning film, ‘Burning the Bed'; episodes of the children's TV series ‘Garth & Bev'; and an audio play, ‘Doctor Who: Fear of the Daleks'. He lives in Dublin. Group 8 is a professional artists' collective based in Ballinasloe that came together in August 2009 in order to add to the cultural interest of the town. They hosted a very successful joint exhibition of their work, ‘Junction 14.5', in Hayden's in March 2010 and a second exhibition is planned for March 2011. The group is comprised of five visual artists, two writers and one singer: Joyce Little – visual and multimedia artist; Tommy Campbell – sculptor; Grellan Ganly – visual artist; Úna Spain – visual artist; Brendan Grealy – visual artist; Nuala Ní Chonchúir – writer; Zara Little-Campbell – writer; and Lee Ní Chinnéide – singer.