Southword Poetry Podcast

(00:00) – Clíona Ní Ríordáin and Patrick Cotter discussion
(04:44) – Stephen Sexton interview
(01:01:07) – Southword poem, Biophoton by Andrew Gebhardt 
Stephen Sexton’s first book, If All the World and Love Were Young was the winner of the Forward Prize for Best First Collection in 2019 and the Shine / Strong Award for Best First Collection. He was awarded the E.M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2020. He was the winner of the National Poetry Competition in 2016 and the recipient of an Eric Gregory Award in 2018. Cheryl’s Destinies was published in 2021, and was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection.
This week's Southword poem is 'Biophoton' by Andrew Gebhardt, which received third prize in the Gregory O'Donoghue International Poetry Competition and is published in issue 50. You can buy single issues, subscribe, or find out how to submit to Southword here.

(00:00) – Clíona Ní Ríordáin and Patrick Cotter discussion
(07:05) – Máighréad Medbh interview
(01:04:52) – Southword poem, Incantations of Loss by Lani O’Hanlon 
Máighréad Medbh is a poet and prose writer with nine published books. Most of her poetry books are long-form sequences or narratives, and her ecological verse novel, Parvit of Agelast (Arlen House), was shortlisted for the 2017 Pigott Prize. After her first book from Blackstaff Press in 1990, she earned a reputation for dramatic presentation, performing widely in Ireland and abroad. She has written for radio, collaborated on award-winning art films, and has three novels online. In 2025 she was awarded the Aodh Ruadh Ó Domhnaill Poetry Exchange, during which she completed her new work Dwelling, a transhistorical exploration of identity, change and displacement, conflating poetry and essay.
This week's Southword poem is 'Incantations of Loss' by Lani O’Hanlon, which is published in issue 49. You can buy single issues, subscribe, or find out how to submit to Southword here.

(00:00) – Clíona Ní Ríordáin and Patrick Cotter discussion
(02:17) – Jericho Brown interview
(57:00) – Southword poem, The Last Ice Pop by Patrick Wright
Jericho Brown is the recipient of a Whiting Writers’ Award and fellowships from The Academy of American Poets, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Brown’s first book, Please (2008), won the American Book Award. His second book, The New Testament (2014), won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was named one of the best of the year by Library Journal, Coldfront, and the Academy of American Poets. He is also the author of the collection The Tradition (2019), which was a finalist for the 2019 National Book Award and the winner of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.
This week's Southword poem is 'The Last Ice Pop' by Patrick Wright, which is published in issue 49. You can buy single issues, subscribe, or find out how to submit to Southword here.

(00:00) – Clíona Ní Ríordáin and Patrick Cotter discussion
(11:01) – Eilean Ni Chuilleanáin interview
(01:02:57) – Southword poem, Roadkill in Offaly by Simon Costello
Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin was born in Cork City in 1942. She was a founder member of Cyphers, the literary journal (1975). Her first collection, Acts and Monuments, won the Patrick Kavanagh Award. The Gallery Press has published her nine collections of poems including The Sun-fish which won the Griffin International Poetry Prize and The Mother House (2019) winner of the Irish Times Poetry Now Award. Her Collected Poems (2020) won the Pigott Poetry Prize. Her 2023 collection The Map of the World won the Farmgate Café National Poetry Award. Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin is a Fellow and Professor of English (Emeritus) at Trinity College Dublin. She served as Ireland Professor of Poetry from 2016-2019 and, in 2025, was elected a Saoi, the highest honour of Aosdána.
This week's Southword poem is 'Roadkill in Offaly' by Simon Costello, which was one of the poems in the selection which won the inaugural Southword Editors' Poetry Award and appears in issue 46. You can buy single issues, subscribe, or find out how to submit to Southword here.

(00:00) – Clíona Ní Ríordáin and Patrick Cotter discussion
(04:21) – Mary O'Malley interview
(52:30) – Southword poem, The Burial of Ten-to Two Blue by Paul McMahon
Mary O’Malley was born in Connemara, and educated at University College Galway. She lived in Lisbon for eight years and taught at the Universidade Nova there. She served several years on the council of Poetry Ireland and was on the Committee of the Cúirt International Poetry Festival for eight years. She was the author of its educational programme. She has published nine books of poetry, including Valparaiso arising out of her Residency on the national marine research ship. Her latest Collection, The Shark Nursery, is published by Carcanet.
This week's Southword poem is 'The Burial of Ten-to Two Blue' by Paul McMahon, which appears in issue 46. You can buy single issues, subscribe, or find out how to submit to Southword here.