Correspondences

Annemarie Ni Churreáin & Evgeny Shtorn in conversation with poet Jessica Traynor.

Poet Jessica Traynor, along with Stephen Rea, is the editor of Correspondences: An anthology to call for an end to Direct Provision. The book pairs writers, photographers and visual artists in the direct provision system in Ireland with Irish artists and writers.

The stories, poems, images and essays in Correspondences reflect the desperation that leads to migration, the hope carried through war and devastation, and the meaningful parallels between the Irish experience of famine and emigration and the experience of asylum seekers in Ireland today.

The Irish Times said of Correspondences, ‘The call and response of outrage at injustice between the Irish and our visitors is compelling…This is an excellent book and as disturbing as it needs to be.’

 Annemarie Ní Churreáin is a poet from the Donegal Gaeltacht, Ireland, and a recipient of a Next Generation Artist Award from the President of Ireland on behalf of the Arts Council of Ireland. She has received  literary fellowships from Jack Kerouac House Orlando, Akademie Schloss Solitude in Germany and Hawthornden Castle Scotland. She is a 2019 co-recipient of the Markievcz Award Ireland and the 2019-2020 Writer in Residence at National University of Ireland, Maynooth. 

Evgeny Shtorn is a civil society activist, organiser and LGBT researcher from Russia. In 2018, he was forced to leave Russia and claim asylum in Ireland. During his time here, he has written extensively about his experiences of Direct Provision, and has studied for a Community Development postgraduate diploma in NUI Galway.

Evgeny explores and studies the issues suffered by the LGBT population in Russia, as well as the state of living conditions in Ireland’s Direct Provision system for refugees and his personal experience there. He is praised by his interviewees for his raw, personal poetry and analysis of the social issues he is involved with as well as studies.

Thursday 15 October, 8pm, online (Please note this event will stream on the Ballina Fringe Festival Facebook page)