Luke Kennard's Poetry Clip for The John Hewitt Society. Luke first read for the JHS in 2017. His first poetry collection, The Solex Brothers, won him an Eric Gregory Award. He was the youngest poet to be shortlisted for the Forward Prize.

Rita Ann Higgins (Ireland) read at the 2016 John Hewitt International Summer School, alongside Grace Wells.  Rita Ann Higgins was born in Galway. Her first five collections were published by Salmon Press: Goddess on the Mervue Bus (1986), Witch in the Bushes (1988), Goddess and Witch (1990), Philomena's Revenge (1992), and Higher Purchase (1996). Bloodaxe […]

Nandi lived in South Africa under the apartheid regime until she was 21, when she moved to Northern Ireland—where she has been active in the arts community as a writer, schools ambassador, artist and facilitator. In 2010, she founded the ‘nandijproject’, with the intention to tackle women trafficking and sexual exploitation. She has participated in public performance and discussion with fellow writer Raquel McKee and has explored the place of performance writers in the field of artistic practice and public arts. She has been involved with the Irish Writers Centre XBorders project, Same/Difference project, the Poetry Jukebox and is part of the Sky, You Are Too Big poetry collective. Nandi managed the ‘Home neither here nor there’ exhibition at Stormont in May 2013.

Matt Bryden (England) read at the 2014 John Hewitt International Summer School, alongside Vona Groarke. Born and raised in Beckenham, Matt Bryden is an EFL teacher whose work has taken him to Tuscany, the Czech Republic and Poland. He has an MA in Creative and Life Writing from Goldsmiths College and his pamphlet, Night Porter, was […]

Philip Gross was born in Cornwall, the son of an Estonian wartime refugee, and he has lived in Plymouth, Bristol and South Wales, where he was Professor of Creative Writing at Glamorgan University. He has published numerous poetry collections, beginning with “The Wasting Game” (Bloodaxe, 1998), which was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. Later collections. all with Bloodaxe, include: “Mappa Mundi” (2003 & PBS Recommendation), “The Egg of Zero” (2006 & shortlisted for the Roland Matias Prize), “The Water Table” (2009 & winner of the T S Eliot Prize), “Deep Field” (2010 & PBS Recommendation), “Love Songs of Carbon” (2016 & PBS Recommendation), “A Bright Acoustic” (2017), and “Between the Islands” (2020). He received a Cholmondeley Award in 2017.

Gail McConnell (Ireland) read alongside Noel Monaghan for an event organised by the John Hewitt Society and City Chapters (Armagh) to celebrate 2019 National Poetry Day. Gail lives in Belfast and is a Senior Lecturer in English at Queen’s University Belfast where she is also the convenor of the MA in Poetry: Creativity and Criticism […]