Holly Hughes, TY Guest speaker & Poetry Workshop

Holly Hughes is a writer, poet, and performer from West Cork. She holds a BA in English and French from the University of Galway and a Postgraduate Diploma in Public Relations and Communications. Her career has evolved from working as a communications professional in international development, to freelance writer and environmental columnist, to poet, playwright, and performer. She was recently named a rising star to watch in 2026 by the Irish Independent after her debut solo show, I Want to Speak to Your Manager (How I Was Radicalised And Became… Karen), premiered to sold-out audiences at Scene + Heard and Dublin Fringe Festival in 2025.

In 2025, Holly represented Ireland at the Poetry Slam World Cup in Paris, where she placed third. She was a runner-up in the 2024 All-Ireland Poetry Slam, a State Finalist in the 2023 Australian Poetry Slam and has had her poetry published in Westerly, Washing Windows V, The Stony Thursday Book and the Poetry's Dead Anthology, Vol. 2. Holly has performed as a poet and storyteller across Ireland and Australia, most recently at Electric Picnic, Beyond The Pale, the Irish Literature Festival Dublin, and the Irish Writers Centre. She is currently completing a Master’s in Creative Writing at the University of Limerick under Professor Joseph O'Connor and Donal Ryan.

Workshop

Poetry is the art of noticing and the radical act of finding beauty in everything

During this two-hour workshop, students will analyse and discuss how poetry helps us to reimagine - and thus reshape - the world around us. Taking poets such as Ada Limon, Sharon Olds, Pablo Neruda, and Madison Godfrey as inspiration, students will craft poetry that focuses on transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary. Upending notions of what poetry can be, this workshop will be about reframing how we see the world and ourselves using devices such as the celebratory ode and the epistolary poem.