Following on from a successful year of writing last year under the guidance of the Carlow writers in residence, Peter Murphy, Oonagh Kearney, Darren Donohue, this term we are happy to welcome Colm Keegan as our writer in residence for the Autumn term 2019!

Colm is a writer and poet from Dublin, Ireland. He has been shortlisted four times for the Hennessy New Irish Writing Award, for both poetry and fiction and won the All Ireland Poetry Slam. His first book “Don’t Go There” was released to critical acclaim in 2012. His latest collection “Randomer” is out now and available from Salmon poetry. In 2014 he was awarded a residency in the LexIcon, Ireland’s largest public library. He has developed numerous creative writing projects for schools and colleges across the country. He is a creative writing teacher and co-founder of the Inklinks Project, a writing initiative for young writers. He was a co-founder and board member of Lingo, Ireland’s first Spoken Word festival. He co-wrote “Three Men Talking About Things They Kinda Know About” – which toured Ireland and sold out in Bristol, London and Paris. His short play “The Process” was staged in the Abbey Theatre as part of 24 Hour Plays 2017. His debut full-length play “For Saoirse” was staged in the Axis Theatre as part of the Dublin Fringe 2018, and was nominated for the Fishamble New Writing Award.

We are also happy to announce the recommencement of The Writing Room at Carlow College, St Patrick’s. Colm will take control of the writing desk in our weekly ‘Writing Room’, a two hour session (extra-curricular) of creative writing; the first hour, free writing in response to Colm’s prompts and ideas for the session; and the second hour will see Colm guide you through the techniques of one of his favoured forms; he works in poetry, spoken word and drama, and so we await to see what medium he will explore with us. We look forward to finding out more every Wednesday in Philosophy Hall from 1.00 to 2.00pm and from 2.00 to 3.00pm.