Three contemporary poets whose work incorporates archival or contemporary documentary material give short talks on their writing process.

Bebe Ashley, Julie Morrissy and Cherry Smyth discuss their inspirations, raw material and references, drafts and rewrites, aspects of presentation and publishing, and other elements framing their recent work. Devised, programmed and hosted by Christodoulos Makris.

Christodoulos Makris is a former Writer in Residence at Maynooth University and Kildare Library & Arts Services (2018-19). He has published several books, digital projects, pamphlets, artists’ books and other poetry objects, with presses in Ireland, the UK and North America, including This is no longer entertainment: A Documentary Poem (Dostoyevsky Wannabe, 2019). His forthcoming book It Reeks of Radio is composed of fragments of correspondence around historical RTÉ Radio programming. Recent awards include an Arts Council Literature Project Award and the inaugural Joseph M Hassett Creativity Bursary (Poetry) at UCD. He is the poetry editor at gorse journal and co-director of the multidisciplinary performance platform PHONICA. http://yesbutisitpoetry.blogspot.com/

Bebe Ashley lives in County Down. Her work is most recently published in bath magg, Poetry Ireland Review, and Modern Poetry in Translation. Her debut collection Gold Light Shining was published by Banshee Press. In 2021, Bebe was longlisted for the Ivan Juritz Prize for Creative Experiment and awarded a Chair of Ireland Poetry Trust Award. Most recently, Bebe was selected as one of nine artists to receive a Digital Evolution Award in support of a project Confetti that explores poetic potential of Braille and 3D printing. http://www.bebe-ashley.com

Julie Morrissy is the first Poet-in-Residence at the National Library of Ireland in the Decade of Centenaries programme. Her project Radical!: Women and the Irish Revolution comprises a podcast series and poetry pamphlet. She is the 2021-22 National Endowment of the Humanities Fellow at the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Morrissy is a recipient of the MAKE Theatre Award, and the Arts Council ‘Next Generation’ Award. Her website is www.juliemorrissy.com

Cherry Smyth has published four collections of poetry, most recently Famished (Pindrop Press, 2019), a book-length poem that explores the Irish Famine and the legacy of British colonialism. She also published Hold Still (Holland Park Press, 2013), a novel about the Irish muse of the painters, Whistler and Courbet. http://www.cherrysmyth.com/

Kildare Readers Festival is brought to you every year in October by Kildare County Library and Arts Service. For more information about KRF see https://kildarecoco.ie/library/KildareReadersFestival/