Poems for patience XIII

Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust  in association with Cúirt International Festival of Literature and supported by Poetry Ireland
warmly invites you to the launch of POEMS FOR PATIENCE XIII
 
An exhibition of poems selected and introduced by Colette Bryce
 
On Friday April 22 at 11.00am on the Arts Corridor, University Hospital, Galway
 
Each year, a poet who is appearing at Cúirt International Festival of Literature selects poetry suitable for display in waiting areas of University Hospital Galway and Merlin Park University Hospital. The poet chooses 22 poems which are then framed and displayed in the Art Corridor, University Hospital, Galway during the festival. An official launch takes place and the poet introduces the poems that they have chosen.
 
Poems for Patience is a collection of varied thoughtful poems by celebrated Irish and International poets.  Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust is hopeful that the poetry disseminated throughout the hospitals will give people pause for reflection and space for hope in both those joyful celebratory moments as well as the all too often times of pain or worry. This year Poems for Patience is selected and introduced by Colette Bryce.
 
Please join us and Colette Bryce on the Arts Corridor Friday April 22 at 11.00am as we launch the thirteenth series of Poems for Patience. 
 
 In conjunction with the Poems for Patience project, Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust has held an annual poetry competition since 2013. This year, the winning entry is Rachel Coventry’s poem ‘Afternoon Drinking in The Jolly Butchers’. Rachel will be introduced as the 2016 winner by Kevin Higgins, Writer in Residence at Galway University Hospitals, and will read her winning poem at the launch. The poem will be included in the Arts Trust’s Poems for Patience poetry collection.
 
Finally we will unveil the Menu of Poems for Poetry Day 2016, titled Soul Food.  Menu of Poems is a joint initiative by members of Arts and Health Co-ordinators Ireland. Poetry is circulated on meal trays in health settings nationally on Poetry Day.  Poetry Day takes place this year on April 28.  This project is kindly supported by Health Promotion and Improvement in the HSE and Poetry Ireland. Several hospitals and healthcare settings will be taking part in the initiative including the seven hospitals in Saolta University Healthcare Group.  The project is co-ordinated by Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust.
 
Colette Bryce was born in Derry in 1970. She was a Creative Writing Fellow at the University of Dundee (2003-05) and held the North East Literary Fellowship in Newcastle from 2005-07. She divides her time between London and Newcastle upon Tyne, working as a freelance teacher, and editor at Poetry London. Colette won The Eric Gregory Award in 1995, and published her first collection, The Heel of Bernadette, in 2000. She won the National Poetry Competition in 2003 with ‘The Full Indian Rope Trick’, which was voted a favourite poem in a poll to celebrate 30 years of the National Poetry Competition--it became the title poem of her second collection, The Full Indian Rope Trick (2004). Self-portrait in the Dark, her third collection from Picador, was published in 2008. Colette was awarded a special prize in memory of Seamus Heaney as part of the 2015 Christopher Ewart-Biggs Prize for her collection The Whole and Rain-domed Universe.
 
Rachel Coventry lives in Galway. Her poetry has appeared (or is forthcoming) in various journals including Poetry Ireland Review, The SHop, Stony Thursday Book, Cyphers Crannóg, and Skylight 47. She was selected for the 2014 Poetry Ireland Introductions Series and is currently writing a PhD on Heidegger’s poetics at NUIG.