North West Words Arts Night Next Thursday 26th June 2014

June, good weather, my holidays are looming, and NWW is next week - what a combination! I always enjoy NWW, but I must say I'm particularly looking forward to this one as a fiction writer. Alan McMonagle is reading, and Siobhan McNamara, with music by Maryann McDonnell.

Readings: Alan McMonagle

Alan is an award winning writer based in Galway. He has performed at many festivals at home and abroad, and his stories have appeared in many journals including The Stinging Fly, Southword, The Penny Dreadful, Grain, and Prairie Fire. His first collection of stories, Liar Liar, appeared in 2008 and was nominated for the Frank O’Connor Short Story Award. The title story from his recently published second collection, Psychotic Episodes, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Earlier this year, his radio play, Oscar Night, was produced and broadcast by RTE.

Alan's latest book is Psychotic Episodes and he has a website with more details here

Readings: Siobhán McNamara

Siobhán is a journalist and creative writer from Donegal Town. She works for River Media, contributing to the company’s traditional and online news publications. Her short fiction has been published in Revival, the UK flash fiction anthology Scraps and several online magazines and writing websites. She has won or been placed in a number of competitions, most recently coming second in the Read DL 2014 flash fiction competition and the Short Writes short story competition. She also writes poetry and children’s stories and  is working on a collection of books for younger readers that combine her love of writing with her love of nature. When not writing, Siobhán is a busy mother of four daughters. Her many other interests include cooking, gardening, photography and kayaking. Her blog siobhanmcnamara.wordpress.com is a mixture of fiction, non-fiction and photography.

And, of course, there's an open mic.