Athlone poet reads at UK festival
Athlone poet, Amy Abdullah Barry was honoured to read at Morecambe Poetry Festival, UK recently.
She performed alongside two other Breaking Ground Ireland poets; Raquel McKee and Sasha Terfous as the opening half for headliner, Lemn Sissay’s ‘Let the Light In’ show,’ at Winter Gardens on the night of Sunday, September 22.
“We were thrilled when Lemn came to greet us back stage prior to our performance, and made us feel at ease. He is a very likable person, a very warm, personality. I’ve only met him online… in zoom workshops.” Amy said.
Lemn Sissay was the official poet of the 2012 London Olympics, was chancellor of the University of Manchester from 2015 until 2022. Amy read poems from her debut collection, ‘Flirting with Tigers’ published by Dedalus Press, Dublin, and from her chapbook, ‘Spearing Dreams.’
She is a writer/poet and facilitator. Amy is published widely including Cyphers, RTE and elsewhere. She has facilitated workshops in libraries, schools, hospitals and the Irish Writers Centre.
Her poems have been translated into many languages including Irish, Italian, Persian, Turkish, Azerbaijani & Spanish. Chosen for the Poetry Ireland Introduction Series 2022,Amy has been awarded literature bursaries from the Arts Council & Words Ireland. Her poems have been highly commended, shortlisted, long listed, as well as winning local and international awards. An Honorary member of the Pablo Neruda Association, Italy, she regularly organises poetry and music events in Athlone.
Morecambe Poetry Festival was attended by an impressive line-up spread over two venues.
The festival ended on Sunday with performances from both Pam Ayres and Lemn Sissay.
Amy extended her thanks to Nicholas Chapman, Producer from Speaking Volumes for the kind invitation.
“In 2022 Speaking Volumes worked with Cuìrt International Festival of Literature and the University of Galway to jointly produce the Breaking Ground Ireland brochure, highlighting diverse writers and illustrators on the island of Ireland, in which we three were included,” Amy added.