Keeping the Colours New: Debut Poets Showcase

We’ve never been short of world-class poets in Ireland, and here at Cúirt we’re honoured and excited to showcase the talents of a new generation. Some names may be familiar already, but whether you’re a poetry specialist or a relative newcomer, you’re bound to end your Sunday afternoon with a new favourite. Join Nithy Kasa, Victoria Kennefick, Nandi Jola and Padraig Regan for a reading to remember.

Nithy Kasa is an Ireland based poet of Congolese origin. Her poems have been published in Poetry Ireland Review, Trumpet Magazine, SAH Journal, Flare, A New Ulster, Writing Home: The New Irish Poets (Dedalus) and the commemorative anthology from The Ireland Chair of Poetry, Hold Open the Door (UCD Press). She was shortlisted for The Eavan Boland Emerging Poet Award 2021. Palm Wine Tapper and The Boy at Jericho, her debut collection, will be published by Doire Press this spring.

Victoria Kennefick’s first collection, Eat or We Both Starve (Carcanet Press, 2021), was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize and the Costa Poetry Award. It was a book of the year in The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Irish Times, The Sunday Independent and The White Review. She is an Arts Council of Ireland Next Generation Artist.

Nandi Jola is a South African born poet, storyteller and playwright, as well as a Smock Alley Theatre Rachel Baptiste 2022 Programme recipient. She was a creative writing facil-itator for Ulster University Books Beyond Boundaries NI in 2021. Her one woman play ‘The Journey’ opened the International Literature Festival Dublin in October, 2020. She represented Northern Ireland at the Transpoesie Poetry Festival in 2021 and is a commissioned poet for Poetry Jukebox, Ambiguities, a James Joyce programme of the Centre Culturel Irlandais and Impermanence Way Archive Project 2022. She is studying for her MA in Poetry at Queen’s University Belfast. Home is Neither Here Nor There, her debut collection, will be published by Doire Press this spring.

Padraig Regan is the author of two poetry pamphlets: Delicious (Lifeboat, 2016) and Who Seemed Alive & Altogether Real (Emma Press, 2017). In 2015, they were a recipient of an Eric Gregory Award, the Ireland Chair of Poetry Bursary Prize in 2020, and the Clarissa Luard Award in 2021. Their first book Some Integrity was published by Carcanet in 2022.

This event will be moderated by Dr Tapasya Narang.

In partnership with Doire Press. Supported by Arts Council Northern Ireland National Lottery Fund.