This episode's guest is poet, Gaynor Kane, who hails from East Belfast. Although Gaynor never imagined herself as a poet, her most recent collection, "Venus in pink marble’ is a "captivating collection full of personal and social history, with authentic snapshots of people and places, skillfully rendered."

Gaynor started a degree with the Open University when she turned 40 and by the age of 46, she had completed her ...

Today's guest is Byddi Lee - an Armagh based author, who has lived in Canada, South Africa, Paris and California before settling back in her home town of Armagh in Northern Ireland. 

Her first novel, March to November, was written while in California and helped ease her homesickness.

Byddi's Rejuvenation Trilogy has been rated one of the best lockdown reads of the year by the Belfast Telegraph. She has also published flash fi...

Today's guest is Byddi Lee - an Armagh based author, who has lived in Canada, South Africa, Paris and California before settling back in her home town of Armagh in Northern Ireland. 

Her first novel, March to November, was written while in California and helped ease her homesickness.

Byddi's Rejuvenation Trilogy has been rated one of the best lockdown reads of the year by the Belfast Telegraph. She has also published flash fi...

Today's guest is Seán Mackel, who writes fiction and poetry as well as being a visual communicator. He won the Kanturk Flash Fiction Prize in 2019, for his first flash fiction, The Silent Mouth. 

Seán has been lecturing and working in graphic design for decades in Australia, Germany and Ireland. 

Podcast website:
https://creativeplacesandfaces.com/

Credits:
Host: Jackie De Burca
Sound engineer: Newton Samadder
Music: No.4 Piano Journe...

Today's guest is Seán Mackel, who writes fiction and poetry as well as being a visual communicator. He won the Kanturk Flash Fiction Prize in 2019, for his first flash fiction, The Silent Mouth. 

Seán has been lecturing and working in graphic design for decades in Australia, Germany and Ireland. 

Here is one of many classic quotes from this part of Seán's interview: "So I remember that sort of aspect of Belfast, it’s the ...

Today's guest was described as a “force of nature” by the journalist who nominated her to be a guest. This force of nature is the award-winning author and poet from Belfast, Maeve O'Lynn.

Amongst her many achievements, Maeve has won the TU Short Story Competition at Red Line Book Festival, Dublin., in 2019. She was also longlisted for the Seamus Heaney Award for New Writing in 2019.

Maeve O’Lynn has published short fiction an...

In this second part of our conversation, Susanne talks about how she first came to Ireland and how the country makes her feel alive. We explore The Troubles through her own thoughtful perspective.

Through her life and creativity, we travel to Bath and various places in Northwest Ireland that are so obviously integral to her life.

Susanne writes beautifully in English and her insightful mind and creative output are intricately connect...

Imagine being born and living as a sensitive child in Nuremberg in the 1980s who thoroughly absorbed the second-hand trauma of World War II. Add into the mix the fact that your Father is entirely deaf as a result of an air raid. So you learn to communicate with him by writing notes; a formative experience that Susanne Stich is sure contributed to her becoming a writer in her adult years.

Susanne's youth and creativity were deepl...

Stained glass artist, Ann Smyth, has been commissioned by a number of establishments including the BBC. Her stunning stained glass works can be seen in various locations in Northern Ireland.

Ann also works on smaller pieces that are deeply connected to Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland, where she lives and works. Feathers are a regular motif in her jewellery.

Travel virtually with Ann as she spends time in California in a world-re...

Originally an archaeologist, Emma Thorpe, now makes stunning silver jewellery that is very much inspired by her surroundings of Portstewart and the Causeway Coast, Northern Ireland.

Emma's environment has a real sort of sense of wildness about it, but not a terrifying wildness. It’s a wildness that when you come, you just feel free. 

Emma’s bonds with the land that embraces her link to childhood and her career in archaeology. Her...

For much of her week. visual artist, Helen Sharkey, lives and works on one of 70 small islands dotted along the coast of stunning Strangford Lough. She is based beside a monastic site called Nendrum, which is 5th century, and about four metres from the water up a slight hill on the hill of Nendrum.

When there is a full moon, it creates these amazing, polarised shadows which are one of the many aspects of the environment there that H...

The third and final part of our interview with Malachi O’Doherty brings us back to Belfast as Malachi becomes well-known and respected for his work. 

Another fascinating conversation with a man who loves to spin a yarn.

We end up discussing destiny, karma & baloney! Along with writing and photography and Malachi’s book, Terry Brankin Has A Gun.

This episode is sponsored by Property Insurance Centre.

See the transcription with image...

The second part of the interview with author, journalist and broadcaster, Malachi O'Doherty, takes us from Belfast to India via England, Geneva and a few other places. 

Follow Malachi's fascinating time in India, discover some of the places that contributed to his development as a writer and see him back to his native city of Belfast.

Some of the topics covered include Hinduism vs Catholicism and a pretty deep and philosophic...

Author, journalist and broadcaster, Malachi O'Doherty was born in the village of Muff, Co. Donegal in March 1951.  Did you know that Malachi is a twin? And it was suspected that he and his brother may not survive. Soon after the family moved to Ballycastle while his father worked hard in a Belfast bar to feed an ever-increasing brood of children.

Packed full of interesting childhood anecdotes, this episode touches on Malachi'...

Andrea Spencer is a Glass Artist who makes beautiful works of art from glass. Originally from England, Andrea has been based in a Games of Thrones location in Northern Ireland, Ballintoy, where she both lives and works.

She finds much of her inspiration from nature and delights in investigating natural forms that are then transformed into symbolic objects or abstracted to create images.

As Andrea considers her environment in Northern...

Jan Carson has made East Belfast her base for a number of years now. Discover how these terraced streets play muse to this award-winning author.

Listen to Jan as she describes how this place is bursting with material for her as an author. Learn how being in the middle of this closely-knit community triggers her creativity.

Jan also talks about her first serious writer's block and how she managed to resolve it. In fact, she did s...

Senior reporter for one of the world's top newspapers, The Guardian, (at the time of recording) and author of ten books, Henry McDonald talks to Jackie De Burca about his formative years in Belfast, the role of both East and West Berlin in his novels and life, plus how Nerja in Spain and Hove in England affect him creatively.

Born on 6th July 1965, he grew up in Belfast during The Troubles where he had a few lucky escapes. In Be...

Winner of the EU Prize for Literature in 2019, Ballymena born author, Jan Carson, delves into her own imagination as well as a number of places that have had an important impact on her creativity.

Be transported by Jan's gentle voice as she considers the formative effects of her hometown Ballymena, how it contrasted with the Belfast of her university days and learn how she desperately needed to leave an environment that these da...