Nuar Alsadir is a poet, writer, and psychoanalyst. She is the author of the poetry collections Fourth Person Singular (2017), a finalist for the 2017 National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry and shortlisted for the 2017 Forward Prize for Best Collection in England and Ireland; and More Shadow Than Bird (Salt Publishing, 2012). Her poems and essays have appeared in numerous publications, including Granta, The New York Times Magazine, BOMB, Slate, Grand Street, The Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, Poetry London, and the Poetry Review. Alsadir is a fellow at The New York Institute for the Humanities, on the faculty at New York University, and she works as a psychotherapist and psychoanalyst in private practice in New York.

Originally published in The Honest Ulsterman

Zeina Hashem Beck is a Lebanese poet who won the 2016 May Sarton New Hampshire Poetry Prize for her second collection, Louder than Hearts, about which Naomi Shihab Nye wrote, ‘Everything Arabic we treasure comes alive in these poems’. Zeina is also the author of two 2016 chapbooks: 3arabi Song, which was selected as winner of the 2016 Rattle Chapbook Prize, and There Was and How Much There Was, chosen by Carol Ann Duffy. Zeina's first book, To Live in Autumn, focusing on Beirut, won the 2013 Backwaters Prize and was a runner-up for the 2014 Julie Suk Award.

Originally published in The Honest Ulsterman

Di Slaney’s second publication, and first full collection, Reward for Winter, tells the story of her move from an urban existence to life as custodian of an ancient farmhouse in Nottinghamshire. I can recommend the moving book for its precise poetry insight into life on the farm and what comes across as   great eye for the details of history. I wanted to interview Di to find out a little more about her writing and her unconventional and demanding lifestyle, which includes being owner of Candlestick Press.

Originally published in The Honest Ulsterman