Alice Bennett is an artist, writer, teacher/researcher. She was born in Zimbabwe and moved to Kilkenny in 2000. She teaches creative writing and literature in Maynooth University and facilitates workshops with community groups. Alice’s poems are about intense personal experiences and relationships. They record, reflect and challenge the everyday moments which make up our lives. Her work has been published in the Kilkenny Poetry Broadsheet, various anthologies and broadcast on Poetry Phone, a Kilkenny Arts Office programme. Alice was shortlisted for the Patrick Kavanagh first collection award 2023. She has just completed her first collection of poetry which she has sent out to publishers.
Janis Woodgate began writing poetry as a founder member of Kilkenny Young Writers at the Desert Hall, New Street in the early nineties and reignited her passion for poetry through participating in Kilkenny Arts Office programme of workshops and supports for writers since 2015. Janis is currently majoring in English, Creative Arts and Media at Carlow College, St. Patrick’s where she has completed a creative writing dissertation to include a collection of her poems. Janis’ impetus for writing is to record the visceral experience of being in the world. Janis’ poems have been published in editions of the Kilkenny Poetry Broadsheet, The Snow Island Review, South Carolina, USA, and the Poetry Ireland Review. Janis won second prize in the Cathalbuí Poetry Competition in 2024 and has won first prize for poetry in the Carlow College Literary Awards in 2023 and in 2025.