2022 Winner - Aoife Osborne

We are delighted to announce this year's scholarship winner; Aoife Osborne. 

​Aoife is a final year student of the BA English Programme in UCC, due to commence her MA in Arts Management this September in Queens University Belfast. A highly active member of student life on and off campus, Aoife has worked with numerous UCC Societies in her four years at the university. She is currently the designer for UCC’s University Express, and is the first designer in the paper’s history to take an active role in writing regularly for the paper.  

Aoife has published numerous articles with local and national newspapers, as well her most recent venture into literary criticism, which saw her write for the Paper Lanterns Young Adult Literary Journal.

In 2016, Aoife placed second in her category at the National Newspapers of Ireland Press Pass Awards. She was also shortlisted for the International IMBAS Short Story Competition in 2018 and was a highly commended entrant of the 2020 NYC Midnight Microfiction Competition. 

A lifelong reader and writer, Aoife is passionate about books, words and stories. Aoife is a former bookseller, having spent four years working in Waterstones Cork where she established the 9-12 Book Club and furthered her knowledge of the publishing and literature industry. She has also spent several years working with various festivals and arts organisations around Cork where she has fostered a deep love and appreciation for all things culture and creativity. 
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She is thrilled and honoured to accept this scholarship and to begin this next step in her literary journey. She looks forward to developing her ideas and further honing her craft in the next few months. 

Below, we publish a beautiful piece of Aoife's, and one we are sure Eoin would have loved, "Spark". You can follow Aoife's progress over the summer on her instagram account @little.lost.starfish

​Spark
This is what it feels like
When you realise that you will
Survive.
It’s a firework imploding in your heart
Sending electric little sparks
From the split ends in your hair
To the cracks in your nails
In shades of gemstones, rubies and emeralds and sapphires
 
It’s Japanese Knotwood
Growing with your pulse
And any attempt to cut it down
Will only strengthen it.
 
It’s coffee on a bitter day
Or malt whiskey by a cosy fire.
It’s the piercing powder snow, falling on your face
And crushed shells between your toes
 
It’s a breeze whispering its secrets to the leaves
It’s a fire that flourishes without effort.
It’s water that flows of its own free will.
It’s the stars which remain still and yet
They are burning
And alive.