Friday 23rd September: 19.30 at Bray Library
Join us for a night of song and poetry commemorating the women of 1914-1923 who are so often written out of history. Featuring singer-song writers Catherine Ann Cullen and Imogen Gunner, and
poets Supriya Kaur Dhaliwal and Emily Cooper. We’ll also be announcing, and hearing, the winning poems and stories from our Bray Literary Festival competitions.
Dr Catherine Ann Cullen was inaugural Poet in Residence at Poetry Ireland 2019 to 2021. She is an award-winning poet, children’s author and songwriter, and recipient of Arts Council and Irish Writers Centre bursaries and the prestigious Kavanagh Fellowship. Her poetry collections include The Other Now (Dedalus 2016). Beehive publishes her seventh book, The Song of Brigid’s Cloak, in October.
Imogen Gunner is a multi instrumentalist, singer and songwriter. She lectures in composition at the International Centre for Music Studies, Newcastle University, where she was awarded a scholarship to research her PhD on feminist reworkings of Irish traditional songs. In 2021 she collaborated as fiddler and harpist on Maz O’Connor’s folk opera on Bridget Cleary, ‘The Wife of Michael Cleary’.
Emily Cooper’s poetry and prose has been published widely in journals and anthologies. She has been a recipient of the Next Generation Award, a Literature Bursary Award and a SIAP Award from ACNI, among others. Her poetry debut Glass was published in 2021 by Makina Books and she is a contributing editor for The Pig’s Back literary journal.
Supriya Kaur Dhaliwal was born in the Himalayan town of Palampur, India. Her poems have been translated into Arabic, German, Italian. In 2018, she was one of the twelve poets selected for Poetry Ireland’s Introductions Series. She was the 2021 Charles Wallace India Trust Fellow at the University of Kent. Supriya’s debut The Yak Dilemma is out now with Makina Press, London.
Bray Literary Festival 