The Squat Pen

Join five award-winning writers and performers for a splendid evening of words and music presented by The Squat Pen.

Matt Kirkham was born in Luton, and lives and works as a teacher in Co. Down.  He has three books of poetry: ‘The Dumbo Octopus’ (Templar 2016), ‘Aged Fourteen My Grandfather Runs Away To Sea’ (Templar 2011) and ‘The Lost Museums’ (Lagan 2006), which won the Strong Prize for best first collection in Ireland.  His work has been anthologised in ‘The Future Always Makes Me So Thirsty’ (Blackstaff 2016), ‘The New North’ (Wake Forest University Press, 2008), and Our Shared Japan (Dedalus, 2007).

Paula Cunningham lives in Belfast. Her books, ‘A Dog called Chance’, (1999), and ‘Heimlich's Manoeuvre’, 2013, are both from Smith/Doorstop. ‘Heimlich’s Manoeuvre’ was shortlisted for the Fenton-Aldeburgh, Seamus Heaney Centre, and Strong Shine First Collection Prizes. Her poems have appeared in numerous anthologies and journals at home and abroad, including ‘Best British Poetry’ (2016). She has won national and international prizes for her work, in addition to awards from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

Randall Stephen Hall is a Belfast born singer-songwriter who has been producing song collections over the past ten years. Much of the material reflects on local concerns, identity and the everyday. Live recordings of his performances at The Star Folk Club in Glasgow, Glenfarg Folk Club in Perth and The Black Box in Belfast are on Youtube and Soundcloud. www.randallstephenhall.com

Originally from County Dublin, Linda McKenna, has lived in County Down for over 20 years. She has had poems published in A New Ulster, Skylight 47, Panning for Poems, The Blue Nib, Four x Four, Dodging the Rain, Poetry in Motion Community Arts Anthology, The Bangor Literary Journal and forthcoming in Poethead: An Index of Women Poets. Her poem ‘Overpainted’ won the Seamus Heaney Award for New Writing in March 2018.

Tobias Radloff is a writer from Germany who lives and works in Belfast, preferably with a cat on his lap. He has written several novels, short stories and poems in German and English, and sometimes in both languages at once. He was recently awarded the Daniil Pashkoff Prize 2018.

The Squat Pen is hosted by poets Ray Givans and Paul Jeffcutt and features up-and-coming writers and performers, alongside those more established and bring together poetry, music and prose. They have been holding regular events in Belfast and across the island of Ireland since 2013, appearing at the John Hewitt International Summer School in Armagh, at Ó Bhéal in Cork and on BBC Radio. 

Join Squat Pen for a showcase filled with riches, a cornucopia of words and music.