Lorraine Carey is revisiting her home county to launch her first ever poetry collection.

The Kerry-based artist who lives and breathes creativity has chosen a most creative setting to reveal her poetic works this week.

Lorraine Carey is reading from her debut collection – From Doll House Windows – in the North West Words August event at Florence Food Co. Letterkenny, at 8pm  on Thursday 31st August.

She was born in Coventry, England to Irish parents and moved to Greencastle, Co. Donegal at the age of seven. Her formative years spent living in the beautiful fishing village provided the backdrop to many of her poems and continue to do so.

The castle ruins of the village feature both as a poem and as the cover image of From Doll House Windows.  A decorative glass designer by trade, she’s also an artist specialising in oils and works mainly on canvas, experimenting too with slate and stone in many projects.

From Doll House Windows

Lorraine now lives with her husband and four children in Fenit, Co. Kerry, and is delighted to be returning home for this event.

Lorraine tells Donegal Woman: “I’m thrilled to have been invited back home to Letterkenny, to read at the North West Words autumn reading series. It has been twenty years since I’ve read in my native Donegal and coming back with my debut collection in my hands makes the journey even more significant.”

Lorraine Carey, image via poethead.wordpress.com

While this is Lorraine’s first full collection, she has had much success with poetry before:

“I began writing poetry as a teenager. I started to get work accepted in my twenties in English publications and I won the Charles Macklin Competition in 1996, which was a great boost to my confidence as a writer. The Derry Journal published one of my early poems, Six Vacancies –  written in the wake of the Carrickatine tragedy in November 1995,” she said.

Lorraine’s poetry has been widely published in the media, as well as her artwork. Her debut collection From Doll House Windows is available from Revival Press.

Gerard Beirne

The August North West Words event features two readers – Lorraine Carey and Gerard Beirne – a nationally and internationally published novelist, poet and short story writer. Gerard Beirne has published two collections of poetry and four books of fiction.

A past Hennessy New Irish Writer of the Year winner, Gerard’s novel The Eskimo in the Net (set in Inishowen) was shortlisted for The Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award and his recent collection of stories, In a Time of Drought and Hunger, for The Danuta Gleed Literary Award 2015. He was shortlisted for the BGE Irish Book Awards – Short Story of the Year 2016. Plus, his story Sightings of Bono was adapted as a short film featuring Bono (U2).

NWW will also have music, trivia quizzes, and open mic – where any audience member can read a short piece of their own work.

So, if you have poetry, fiction or memoir pieces and want an opportunity to read them aloud, bring them with you to North West Words and put your name on our open mic list.

Follow www.northwestwords.com and www.facebook.com/North-West-Words…. for updates on future events.