FREE |Admission is free with donations for The City Chapter welcome.

The City Chapter in association with The John Hewitt Society invites you to celebrate National Poetry Day with two acclaimed Co. Armagh poets Gráinne Tobin and Mel McMahon who will read from and talk about their work.

Gráinne Tobin grew up in Armagh. She taught for many years in further and adult education in Lurgan and in Shimna Integrated College in Newcastle, Co Down. She has published two books, Banjaxed and The Nervous Flyer’s Companion (Summer Palace Press). A third collection, The Uses of Silk, is due in November 2018. She has won poetry competitions and contributed to magazines and anthologies. Her work is included in Poetry Ireland’s archive and Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s online Troubles Archive, and one of her poems is on permanent display as a public sculpture in Down Arts Centre.

Mel McMahon was born in Lurgan and is currently Head of English at the Abbey Grammar School, Newry. His work has appeared widely in journals and anthologies and has been broadcast on BBC Radio Ulster. He has been shortlisted for several literary prizes and was a prize-winner in the Funeral Service of Northern Ireland Poetry Competition (2015). His work has been nominated twice for the Forward Prize for best individual poem. His first book of poems, Out of Breath, was published by Summer Palace Press in 2016. His second book of poems, Beneath Our Feet, was published in 2018.