Áine Uí Fhoghlú comes from the Gaeltacht area of An Rinn in County Waterford. She teaches
creative writing to second level students and has been writer in residence to a number of schools.
Her work has been broadcast and is included in numerous publications. Áine Uí Fhoghlú’s poetry
resounds with the unique music of Rinn Irish. She has the voice of a singer, a musical Gaeltacht
voice. Her work is marked by a profoundly celebratory aspect, thirst for colour, life and movement.
Áine is the Poet Laureate for Dungarvan, Co Waterford. She is a writer of poetry and fiction, and her
published works in poetry include Aistear Aonair (1999); An Liú sa Chuan (2007) and Ar an Imeall
(2011). Áine has won commissions and bursaries from The Arts Council, Ealaíon na Gaeltachta and
Foras na Gaeilge.
Born in Wexford in the southeast of Ireland and has lived in Dublin for many years. He serves as
editor of the monthly Irish-language literary and current affairs magazine Comhar. He was one of the
founding editors of the literary and review journal Oghma (1989-1999). For many years Seosamh has
worked on the editorial staff of the long-established publishing house An Gúm. He was centrally
involved in creating the modern Lexicography unit for the Irish language, under the auspices of Foras
na Gaeilge, and contributes in an editorial capacity to the current dictionary projects. He has
published many articles over the years in the areas of Irish-language literature and current affairs.
His first collection of poems, Taisí Tosta, was published in 2015 and received the Michael Hartnett
Poetry Award. A second collection, Athchuairt came out in 2019.
Molly Twomey grew up in Lismore, County Waterford, and graduated in 2019 with an MA in Creative
Writing from University College Cork. Her first collection, Raised Among Vultures, was published in
2022 by The Gallery Press. It won the Southword Debut Collection Poetry Award, was shortlisted for
the Seamus Heaney Poetry Prize for Best First Collection, and the Farmgate National Poetry Award.
Her work has appeared in New England Review, Poetry Review, Poetry Ireland Review, Banshee, The
Irish Times, Mslexia, The Stinging Fly and elsewhere. She was awarded the 2023 Ireland Chair of
Poetry Bursary.
Dainius Gintalas is a poet, librettist, translator, born in 1973 in the village of Slabadele, in Southern Lithuania. Currently lives in Vilnius. He studied Lithuanian Philology at Vilnius University and Art History at Vilnius Academy of Arts. His book of poems “Boa” (2007) received the New Jatving Prize, “Needles” (2016) was selected as the Book of the Year in the poetry category and awarded the Julijonas Lindė-Dobilas Prize. His book of prose poems “One Summer Song” (2021) received the prestigious Jatving Prize. He also writes for children. Dainius‘s collections of poems have won many prizes, including the Pran Maschot Prize for the best childrens’ and teenage book of the year. He has written libretti for musical productions of various genres, as well as song lyrics. In addition to several novels and plays, he has translated Guy Debord’s “The Society of the Spectacle”, Lotreamon’s poem “Songs of Maldoror” (Poetry Spring Award for translations of world poetry into Lithuanian), poems by H. Michaux, B. Cendrar, R. Char, A. Artaud, and other authors. He has compiled and translated the anthology of contemporary French poetry “The Dancing Mistral” (2022). Since 2000, he has been organising a gathering of artists in his homestead called “Maskoliškis Art Front”, during which exhibitions are opened in a gallery set up in his barn.
Nijolė Daujotytė was born in 1963 in Žemaitija. She studied Lithuanian language and literature at Vilnius University. She has published three collections of poems: “Annual Plants” (2003), “Through the Leaves” (2009) and “A Clear Line” (2021). Her first book received the Zigmas Gėlė Prize. She worked for the childrens’ and youth publishing house “Vyturys”, and later on – for the largest Lithuanian publishing house “Alma littera”. In 2016, she founded her own publishing house “Odilė”, which has since issued several books by Latvian authors among its broad range of world and Lithuanian literature. Nijolė is a member of the International Board of Books for Young People (IBBY) and the Lithuanian Writers’ Union.
Ķempi Kārl (b. 1963) spent his childhood in the northern part of the
ancient Livonian region Metsepole located on the eastern coast of the Gulf
of Riga. This is the area where a dialect of Vidzeme Livonian was spoken
until the 19th century. Ķempi Kārl writes his poetry in this Livonian dialect using
an orthography, which he developed himself. He has published three poetry
collections: trilingual (Livonian, Latvian, Estonian) “Salats joug kolm aģa” (The three
shores of the Salaca, 2013) and “Ēzkyrdiz vīzd” (The ways of closeness, 2023),
bilingual (Livonian, Estonian) “Toini Sina” (Another You, 2013). Together with Valts
Ernštreits and Baiba Damberga, he has also published poems in the collections of
modern Livonian poetry “Trillium” (in Livonian, English, 2018) and “Trillium 2.0”
(in Livonian, Latvian, Estonian, 2020). Ķempi Kārl uses associative word games and
vocabulary unique to Salaca Livonian, arranging it into suprising and evocative imaginary.
