Turn on your mics and join the International Writing Program for a live skype-style poetry discussion with emergent Irish poets on Monday, November 8, 11 a.m. — 12 p.m. (US CST)

British Council Writer-in-Residence at the University of Iowa, Michael McKimm joins northern Irish poet, Miriam Gamble for a live virtual discussion and reading. McKimm and Gamble will talk about their experiences writing in the shadow of the Seamus Heaney generation; the current poetry scenes in Belfast, London, and Glasgow; post-Troubles Northern Irish poetry; and influences on their writing. They will also read selections from their works.

Log in to the Chat Discussion Room at 11 a.m. CST to join us. A webcam is handy for participants to have, but not necessary. The discussion is live audio and text-based, so you can talk, chat, or just listen in.

Miriam Gamble was born in Brussels in 1980 and grew up in Belfast. She studied at Oxford and at Queen’s University Belfast, where she completed a PhD in contemporary British and Irish poetry. She won an Eric Gregory Award in 2007, and her pamphlet, This Man's Town, was published by tall-lighthouse in 2007. A selection of her poems appears in the Bloodaxe anthology Voice Recognition: 21 poets for the 21st century (2009). Her first book-length collection, The Squirrels Are Dead, is published by Bloodaxe in 2010. Michael McKimm lives in London, where he works for the Geological Society Library. A winner of the 2007 Eric Gregory Award, he has published in journals and anthologies, including Best Irish Poetry in English 2010; he reviews regularly for The Warwick Review. His first collection of poetry is Still This Need (Heaventree Press, 2009).