Poet Erin Fornoff will take over the marquee behind The Dock with her own specially curated line-up of writers and storytellers. She will bring with her Derry-based performer and writer Abby Oliveira and a curator, producer, writer, and educator, Dani Gill.

This event will be followed by a performance from guitarist and musician Dotts O'Connor (Come On Live Long, Dirty Dreamer).

About Erin Fornoff
Erin Fornoff is an American-born, new Irish citizen from the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina. Called a ‘story-telling poet’ and ‘as close to music as poetry gets’, she has performed her poetry at hundreds of festivals and events across Ireland, the UK, and the USA, including twice at Glastonbury Festival and a national Irish and UK tour. She has featured on BBC3 The Verb, at Hozier and James Taylor concerts, and her poems have been included in Best New English and Irish Poets 2016. Her debut collection Hymn to the Reckless (Dedalus Press 2017) was shortlisted for the Shine/Strong Poetry Award for best first collection in Ireland and named by The Millions as a ‘Must Read.’

Her title poem ‘Hymn to the Reckless’ featured on posters and curriculum nationwide for Ireland’s National Poetry Day and won the Stanza Slam and Listowel Originals Competition. In 2014, she released a chapbook, ‘Folk Heroes,’ and received an Arts Council bursary for her first novel Better People, set in the non-profit world of Washington, DC. She was co-founder and Programme Director for Lingo, Ireland’s first ever spoken word festival.

About Abby Oliveira
Abby Oliveira is a writer and performer based in Derry. Her work is often cross-discipline and collaborative; comprising poetry, storytelling, music, prose, playwriting, and/or physical performance. Her work has been most recently published in The 32: An anthology of Irish Working Class voices (Unbound, 2021), The New Frontier: reflections from the Irish border (New Island Books, 2021), and Empty House: poetry & prose on the climate crisis (Doire Press, 2021). She has been commissioned as a writer by organisations such as The MAC in Belfast, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio Foyle, RTÉ Radio, and more.

About Dani Gill
Dani Gill is a curator, producer, writer, and educator, based in the west of Ireland. Dani served as Director of Cúirt International Festival of Literature (2010-2016), Ennis Book Club Festival (2020-2022) and has held production and creative roles in theatre and film. She holds a Diploma in Community Development and Youth Work and is motivated by projects that seek to engage, inspire and reflect community. A love of landscape and cross-artform collaboration led her to found The Lighthouse Project in 2020: site-specific responses to lighthouses around Ireland. She is the Performing Arts Curator for the Bealtaine Festival and is Co-Director of Match in The Dark with Brendan MacEvilly. Her debut collection After Love was made into a dance/theatre production and premiered at the Galway International Arts Festival in 2021. A short film of the same name featured in Irish and international film festivals in 2021 and 2022. Lessons in Kindness is her second collection.

About Dotts O'Connor
Best known as the guitarist of RTE Choice-nominated band Come On Live Long and Dirty Dreamer, Dotts O’Connor’s new solo project is a departure from his previous work with the aforementioned groups. Having spent the past decade performing and collaborating with bandmates, it was moving from Dublin to Cavan (via London) that provided him with the freedom to work on his own material.

Dotts found himself quietly working alone in a spare room, playfully following his intuition. This allowed him to be guided by small thoughts and daily observations which shaped his approach to songwriting, a change from working alongside the collective of a band. His debut solo EP, 'Coney', is a culmination of this solitary time spent working on his craft. Throughout the writing process, he had only one rule: Does the song stand on its own with vocals and guitar?

The title track on 'Coney' was added to RTE Radio 1's recommended playlist and received widespread airplay across the station including by John Creedon and Cathal Murray's Late Date.