Orla Fay

Orla Fay is the Poetry Ireland Town Laureate for Dunshaughlin, County Meath. For this initiative between Poetry Ireland and Meath County Council Arts Office she was commissioned to write “Dunshaughlin, Now and Again”. In September 2018 she had a winning poem in Hennessy New Irish Writing in The Irish Times. In 2019 she was longlisted for The Anthony Cronin International Poetry Prize, shortlisted for The Cúirt New Writing Prize, The Bailieborough Poetry Prize, The Francis Ledwidge Poetry Award and won 3rd Prize in The Oliver Goldsmith Poetry Award. In 2020 she won 3rd prize in The Jonathan Swift Creative Writing Award. In 2022 she won Fingal Libraries: Travels with Joyce Poetry Competition. In 2018 she completed a MA in Digital Arts and Humanities at UCC where she wrote a thesis on Poetry in the Digital Age. Her poem “What Became of the Horses (after Michael Longley’s ‘The Horses’)” was included in The Ireland Chair of Poetry Commemorative Anthology, Hold Open the Door, published by UCD Press. She has published two chapbooks, Drawn to the Light and What Became of the Horses. She edited Boyne Berries from 2014 to 2021. She launched an online magazine of poetry, Drawn to the Light Press in October 2020. She has been the recipient of a professional artist development bursary from Meath County Council Arts Office, and an agility award from the Arts Council of Ireland.