Mícheál McCann

Mícheál McCann was born in Derry City, and has published poems in The Poetry Review, Poetry Ireland Review, The Stinging Fly, Queering the Green, Cyphers, Romance Options: Love Poems for Today and The Manchester Review. His first pamphlet of poems Safe Home was published in June 2020 by Green Bottle Press. He was the co-editor of Hold Open the Door (UCD Press, 2020), an anthology concerned with Irish poetry and the role of mentorship. Kei Miller selected him for the International Literature Showcase 2021 as Miller’s 10 emerging writers to watch out for, alongside individuals like Daisy LaFarge, Rachel Long and Gail McConnell. A second pamphlet of poems, Keeper was published in 2022, as was a collaborative art book, Waking Light, with Kerri ní Dochartaigh and Skein Press. He received the inaugural Ireland Chair of Poetry Student Prize, as well as Arts Council of Northern Ireland support across the years. He is the founding editor of catflap, Outburst Queer Arts’ in-house literary magazine of poetry and non-fiction, and was the Irish Writers Centre Young Writers Mentor during the 2023 Belfast Book Festival, of which he is also a co-programmer. Alongside writing and teaching he is an active freelancer in the arts sector in NI, working as project manager, creative producer, editor, and literary coordinator. Mícheál is currently completing a PhD in Creative Writing at the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry and his first full collection of poems, Devotion, will be published by The Gallery Press in May 2024.