Illuminate / Kerrie O'Brien

Kerrie O’Brien has been published in many journals and newspapers including Cyphers, The Stinging Fly, The Irish Times, Banshee Lit, The Irish Examiner, Southword, Orbis and The Penny Dreadful. In February 2012 she was the first poet to read as part of the New Writers Series in Shakespeare & Co., Paris. Her poem “Blossoms” was chosen as the winning entry in the Emerging Talent category of the 2011 iYeats Poetry Competition. Her flash fiction piece “That Night” won the RTE Arena Flash Fiction Competition 2012 and Culture Ireland sponsored her to read in Los Angeles in June of that year. She was one of the emerging writers chosen to read at the Cork Spring Poetry Festival 2013 as well as the Poetry Ireland Introductions Series, Listowel Writers’ Week, Cuisle International Poetry Festival and at the London Irish Arts Centre. Her short fiction piece “Dole” features in the New Planet Cabaret Anthology published by New Island in association with RTE Arena. She was shortlisted for the Penny Dreadful Novella Prize 2015 and is currently working on her first novel. She has a BA in History of Art and Architecture from Trinity College Dublin. Illuminate is her debut collection of poetry and was made possible by a literature bursary from the Arts Council of Ireland.