Cormac Culkeen is a writer and poet from Galway.
He returned to third-level education in 2018 as a mature student, graduating with a BA in Creative Writing in 2022 and an MA in Writing in 2023. His work has been published in Sonder Magazine, Causeway, Ropes Literary Journal, The Honest Ulsterman, Skylight 47, The Galway Review and other publications.
His debut poetry collection ‘The Boy with the Radio’ was published by Beir Bua Press in May 2022. He is currently working towards a second collection of poetry and developing a novel, which was highly commended by the judges of the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair. He is a founding editor of Ragaire Literary Magazine and a recipient of a Galway City Council 2024 Creative Practitioner Bursary.
Cormac’s first collection of poetry, The Boy with the Radio, was published in May 2022 by Beir Bua Press. You can order your copy here : https://beirbuapress.com
The collection was nominated by Beir Bua Press for the John Pollard Foundation International Poetry and the T. S. Eliot Prize.
Praise for The Boy with the Radio
“Every now and then a collection of poems comes along that just blows you away and is astonishing when they are a debut collection. If the role of poetry is to move you, then Cormac has succeeded brilliantly. This collection goes on my top shelf, alongside the books I return to again and again.”
Ken Bruen, an Irish writer of hard-boiled and noir crime fiction.
“Cormac Culkeen is the sort of poet Ireland desperately needs right now. His poems throw a sharp, interrogating light on places and people contemporary Ireland generally likes to omit from its official version of itself. A plain-speaking neo-surrealist in the manner of Richard Brautigan has arisen from the rarely written of townlands of north county Galway. I have been a fan of Culkeen’s writing since I first stumbled across it in a literary magazine in 2002. The publication of The Boy with the Radio is a true cause for celebration. If I ever become Minister for Justice, Culkeen’s poems will be force fed to Sandymount liberals as part of their cultural re-education.”
Kevin Higgins, poet, political writer, founder of Over The Edge Writer’s
Poetry and Videos
For the Rockin’ Bus Driver, by Cormac Culkeen.
A prose poem in tribute to one of the fighters no one sees. A film of this poem is short listed for the Cork Winter Warmer Festival 2022.
The Hermit, a poem by Cormac Culkeen.
A poem about the old and lonely, who are all about us. The video features Ross Errilly Friary. This national monument is a medieval Franciscan friary located about a mile from Headford, County Galway, Ireland.
A Shop’s Glimpses, a poem by Cormac Culkeen
This is about shopping in Galway at Christmas time with images of Eyre Square and the Christmas Market. I hope you enjoy.
No Time to Lose, a poem by Cormac Culkeen
A rhyming poem about the various forms of loss that afflict human life.
The Business, a poem by Cormac Culkeen
A poem about rich men in suits who may have quietly doomed us all
Some Advice, a poem by Cormac Culkeen
A poem containing some points to live by, with a time-lapse video of the diving board in Salthill, Galway, Ireland.
Visit With Despair, a poem by Cormac Culkeen
A poem about one of those days when the world doesn’t feel like a friendly place.
Guitarist, a poem by Cormac Culkeen
A poem about trapped life and potential. The time-lapse video is of Galway Cathedral and the Corrib River from Woodquay on an Autumn evening in Ireland.
Drifting – Winner of Sonder Magazine Panorama Flash Fiction Prize 2021
Drifting – Winner of Sonder Magazine Panorama Flash Fiction Prize 2021. A prose poem imagining a terrible risk and last moments.
Tenant Guidelines, a poem by Cormac Culkeen
A poem about house sharing in Galway in the 90’s.
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Cormac Culkeen 