Starting Stanza: Building a Poetry Career

Join us for a full day of professional development events supporting new and emerging writers! Our first discussion looks at Ireland’s poetry business, featuring Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe, Sophie L Clarke, and Siobhán Ní Dhomhnaill. If you’re making your first steps as a career poet, or are simply curious about how a poet conducts their business, this is the panel for you.

Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe is a poet, pacifist and fabulist. Auguries of a Minor God (Faber), her debut poetry collection, has been longlisted for the 2022 Dylan Thomas Prize, chosen as a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, and listed as a Book of the Year by both The Irish Times and The Irish Independent.

Sophie L Clarke is an author in training with keen literary and academic interests. Her love of words and written language finds a home in prose, poetry and talking. She has performed her work at Maynooth University Soiree 2021 and many other events, and is working towards her first collection. Sophie is a poetry critic on the IRC-funded Diversifying Irish Poetry (DIP) project.

Siobhán Ní Dhomhnaill is a bilingual poet. Her first book, a collection of Irish language poetry Ait agus Iontach Bheith Beo was published by Coisceim in 2020. She released her first spoken word poem ‘Why I’m Not A Buddhist’ under the alias The Puffin Poet in 2021.

The panel is moderated by Catherine Gander, Associate Professor of American Literature at Maynooth University and lead researcher on the Diversifying Irish Poetry project.

Supported by Poetry Ireland