I was genuinely so excited to get in for a proper behind the scenes tour at the Tropical Ravine and Botanic Gardens earlier this month! Discussions are on-going about a potential series of Autumn writing workshops in one of Belfast's coolest and most iconic spaces.

This month I have been facilitating a creative community engagement programme, alongside a visual artist, with a wide variety of different groups in and around Hillsborough. The theme is "Everyone a Guest" and it is a consultative programme which seeks to elicit and develop creative responses to this theme, which will inform a new artwork which has been commissioned for Hillsborough Castle.

The castle is currently closed as it is undergoing a major £16m renovation, so many of our workshops are taking place in the adjacent Old Courthouse building, in the Market Room. The renovation to Hillsborough Castle will be completed in stages: its new Clore Learning Centre, in the converted stables, will open to the public in April 2019 and this new artwork, along with the work created by the groups as part of our workshop programme, will be on display.

Xenophon: From the Beginning, McGibbon O'Lynn's first solo show has just finished so I'm excited to share a few new bits of poetry goodness with you! First up, a new audio poem, 'The Symbols of My Awakening: A Field Recording'

And then a few details from some new, layered erasure poetry.

Look forward to having these out on show again soon.