The Ireland Chair of Poetry is delighted to announce Jessamine O’Connor as the recipient of the 2025 Ireland Chair of Poetry Travel Award. Jessamine will receive an award of £2,000 to facilitate her travels to Le Harve to collaborate with musician and composer Thomas Drouard.
Commenting on this year’s Travel Award the Trustees had this to say:
“Much as a poet is a product of, and a prober into, their home turf, it’s vital that they have a sense of the wider world, be it a world mediated through art or a world met head on, in the flesh. James Joyce was of the opinion that the shortest way to Tara was via Holyhead. For Jessamine O’Connor, it may turn out that the shortest way to Ballaghaderreen is via Le Havre. We are delighted to be able to help her set forth on her artistic voyage.”
Biography:
Jessamine O’Connor lives on the Sligo Roscommon border. Her poetry collection ‘Silver Spoon’ is published by Salmon Poetry, and she has chapbooks with Nine Pens Press and the Black Light Engine Room press. She is an editor with Drunk Muse Press, The Poet’s Republic, and was on the editorial team for the inaugural Scrimshaw. Awards include this year’s Poems for Patience award, and previously the iYeats and Francis Ledwidge poetry prizes and the Dermot Healy Award 2021 for her fiction and poetry. Her debut novel is forthcoming with Lilliput Press. www.jessamineoconnor.com
The Ireland Chair of Poetry is administered by Poetry Ireland
For any queries please email irelandchairofpoetry@gmail.com