On 21 November, the Office of the Northern Ireland Executive in Brussels was delighted to collaborate with the Embassy of Ireland to Belgium to bring together two female poets from North and South of the island of Ireland to showcase their poetry to an enthusiastic Brussels audience. With the support of The Arts Council NI, we welcomed Stephanie Conn and Katie Donovan for an unforgettable evening of poetry.
Kevin Conmy, Irish Ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium, welcomed guests and introduced Katie who impressed the audience with poems from her poetry collections. The poems were accompanied by context and anecdotes which added a personal touch to the presentation. Director of ONIEB, Aodhán Connolly, then introduced Stephanie, who shared a range of poetry from her diverse portfolio, alongside personal touches and anecdotes. The floor was then opened to the audience, with guests having the opportunity to engage in an enthusiastic Q&A with the poets on many aspects of their work and their creative process. Guests also had the opportunity to meet the poets while enjoying refreshments served after the event.
Katie and Stephanie also performed their work in The Hague on 20 November, at the Embassy of Irish to the Netherlands, where their poetry was enjoyed by an equally attentive audience. Both evenings were a resounding success, and were successful in showcasing some our local talent to a wider audience in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Stephanie and Katie’s poetry touch on similar subjects, with both poets being known for their exploration of grief and their affinity to the natural world communicated through their work. During the Q&A, they reflected on the value of spoken and written word in raising awareness of creativity in the face of grief and adversity. The audience were also interested in Stephanie’s work encouraging children to get stuck into poetry without worrying about grades or ‘not getting it right’. What is important is that they give it a go.
Stephanie Conn is a poet, creative writing facilitator, poetry mentor and former primary school teacher. She is a graduate of the Creative Writing MA at the Seamus Heaney Centre, QUB, and holds a PhD by Practice: Poetry from Ulster University. Her research explores the poetry of chronic illness. Stephanie is the author of Island (Doire Press, 2018), The Woman on the Other Side (Doire Press, 2016), Copeland’s Daughter (Smith/Doorstep, 2016) and most recently, off-kilter (Doire Press, 2022). Her prizes include the Seamus Heaney Award for New Writing and the Yeovil Poetry Prize. The Woman on the Other Side was shortlisted for the Strong/Shine Award for Best First Collection and Copeland’s daughter won the Poetry Business Pamphlet Competition. She is the recipient of multiple arts awards and residencies, most recently a Poetry Ireland residency at the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris, an Arts Council of Northern Ireland ‘Major Individual Award’ and a Royal Society of Literature, ‘Literature Matters Award.
Katie Donovan is a poet and Somatic Experiencing practitioner, which is a form of trauma therapy. She studied at Trinity College Dublin and the University of California, Berkeley. She spent a year teaching English in Hungary, 1987-1988 before she moved back to Dublin. She worked for The Irish Times for 13 years as a journalist in the Features Department. She began writing poetry as a child and eventually published her first collection, Watermelon Man (Bloodaxe Books,1993). Four more collections followed, and Katie published her sixth, May Swim, earlier this year. Katie has been shortlisted for the Irish Times/Poetry Now Prize and was the recipient of the O’Shaughnessy Award for Irish Poetry.
To keep up with future events follow @BrusselsNI on X, or @Brussels_ni on Instagram. You can also find Stephanie on X and Instagram @StephanieConn2, as well as Katie @katiedon5.