A reading and question and answer session from participating poets Olga Demott-Bond and Katie Griffiths, chaired by Belfast-based author Jan Carson. In this session, the poets will read from their collections, talk about their writing and what inspires them.

Olga Dermott-Bond has had poetry and flash fiction published in a wide range of magazines and has won the BBC Proms, Welshpool and Shelley 200 poetry competitions. Her two poetry pamphlets are apple, fallen (Against the Grain Press) and A Sky Full of Strange Specimens (Nine Pens Press). Originally from Northern Ireland, she lives in Warwickshire where she works as a secondary school teacher. Olga is currently guest editor for the Irish journal Dodging the Rain.

Katie Griffiths grew up in Ottawa, Canada, with parents originally from Belfast – where Katie was also able to enjoy three years of her schooling. In May 2024 she was awarded the Gregory O’Donoghue International Poetry Prize. She is author of The Attitudes, published by Nine Arches Press, and the first-prize winning pamphlet My Shrink is Pregnant from Live Canon. She won second prize in 2018’s National Poetry Competition, and in 2016 was published in Primers Volume One by Nine Arches Press. A member of the London-based Red Door Poets, Katie regularly mentors and leads poetry workshops.

Jan Carson is a writer based in Belfast. She has published three novels, three short story collections and two micro-fiction collections. Her novel The Fire Starters won the EU Prize for Literature for Ireland in 2019. Jan's latest novel, The Raptures was published by Doubleday in early 2022 and was subsequently shortlisted for the An Post Irish Novel of the Year and Kerry Group Novel of the Year. Her short story collection, Quickly, While They Still Have Horse was published by Doubleday in April 2024.