Jean Bleakney (Ireland) has conducted workshops and literary garden tours for the Society and she read for the John Hewitt International Summer School in 2017, alongside Lorna Shaughnessy.
Jean is paired with the late Eavan Boland on the CEA’s A-level syllabus in Northern Ireland. Born in Newry, Co Down, Jean studied biochemistry at Queen’s University Belfast and worked in medical research for eight years, but her love of gardening saw her devote her energies to this field – and to her family.
She has three collections with Lagan Press: The Ripple Tank Experiment (1999), The Poet’s Ivy (2003), and Ions (2011). Templar Poetry has published her Selected Poems (2016) and her latest collection, No Remedy (2017). Her deceptively simple and accessible poems have won her a legion of admirers and she is held in high esteem both for her skill as a wordsmith as well as for the humanity inherent in her work.
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