The Irish Examiner recently published an article on scholarship winner, Ali Bracken Ziad and the scholarship.  The article can be read here  and gives a great account of Ali, his motivations as a writer, the scholarship and the upcoming tribute night. 

It also details Ali's new chapbook, written with the support of the scholarship fund;
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"In the opening poem in the book, titled Place And People Without, Ali writes: “I met a man that told me:/Life is treacherous/Whilst eating a spilling sandwich,/Coffee in hand, legs crossed”.

“That’s about two different occasions, speaking to a friend, and my brother,” he explains. “They were both sitting in the most comfortable, safe locations, having a coffee or eating a sandwich, and they were telling me how terrible life was. I was watching them and thinking to myself, ‘this just doesn’t look like a bad life’.”"

We are delighted to see Ali being recognised at a national level and also to see the positive impact the scholarship has had in supporting his work.

Come to the tribute night this Saturday to see Ali & others perform!

Colette Sheridan from The Evening Echo contacted us via the site to ask for information on an article about Eoin, the scholarship and the marathon that Brian is running to raise funds.  The article came out this October 10th and it was a heart-warming thing to see and read.  Colette chose beautiful photographs of Eoin and printed one of his poems - The Stream - with the article. 

The interview is mostly with Brian, and he has some great anecdotes and insights into Eoin's personality.  Some of my favourite quotes are....

"He was an amazing guy. I feel lucky more than anything to have had time with him. I’ll never again have the kind of conversations I had with him. He was amazingly artistic and very clever. He had been in local bands, playing drums and bass. He also played the piano and a bit of ukulele and he acted in plays."

“I’ll always remember one particular weekend. On Friday night, he was doing a gig in Cork. On Saturday night, he was playing in Belfast and on Sunday night, he was in Kerry doing a play as Gaeilge. He was about 18 at the time.” 

"(Eoin) would literally read and write all the time. It wasn’t him saying ‘I’m going to be a writer’. He was really doing it. He would tell people he was sorry he couldn’t meet them as he had books to read."

Click here to read the full article online.