Colette Bryce announced as 2020 Creative Writing Fellow

Posted 22 November 2019

The Arts Council of Ireland and UCD School of English, Drama and Film are delighted to announce Colette Bryce as the 2020 Creative Writing Fellow.

Colette Bryce is a poet from Derry, with four collections published by Picador and a new collection forthcoming in spring 2020. Her latest book The Whole & Rain-domed Universe (2014) was shortlisted for the Costa, Forward, and Roehampton poetry prizes and winner of a Christopher Ewart-Biggs Award in memory of Seamus Heaney. Selected Poems appeared in 2017 and was the recipient of the Pigott Prize for poetry at Listowel. Colette has long and varied experience of teaching creative writing, at universities including Newcastle, Trinity College Dublin and Villanova PA, and also for mentoring organisations including the Arvon Foundation and The Poetry School. She is an experienced editor, most notably for the journal Poetry London from 2009-13, and will be the incoming editor of Poetry Ireland Review in 2020.

Dr. Paul Perry, Head of Creative Writing at UCD, welcomes the appointment. ‘Collette is going to bring an energy and passion for poetry and the discussion around poetry which is vital at this time. Colette is an extraordinary poet, and mentor; her contribution to the community of creative writing at UCD is something both staff and students are very much looking forward to.’

Colette Bryce writes, ‘I’m delighted to be appointed Creative Writing Fellow at UCD, a university and department I have long admired for their active engagement with contemporary poetry, not only through teaching, scholarship and events, but also through their ground-breaking Irish Poetry Reading Archive. It will be an honour and a pleasure to engage with writing students in the coming year and to make new work inspired by my time there, the university’s important resources, and the vibrant literary culture of Dublin.’