New Writer in Residance

John W Sexton

The county of Kerry is famous for many things - its great beauty, its triumphant footballers and its breeding of great writers. With this in mind Kerry County Council has appointed the writer John B. Sexton to act as Kerry Writer in Residence for the month of June.

John, who was born in 1958 is a poet, short story writer, dramatist, children's novelist, radio scriptwriter, broadcaster and now, to add to that list of illustrious titles, is Writer in Residence for County Kerry. His new position makes him available to work with and advise writers, regardless of their level of experience or publishing history, as well as working with both National and Secondary schools, writers groups and presenting adult workshops throughout the county.

John is particularly keen to work with smaller country schools, either National or Secondary, as they can sometimes get overlooked by people in the Arts. He has a particular affinity with younger people regardless of whether they see themselves as writers or not. "When I was a kid I wanted to be an astronaut and live on the moon," explains John. "I definitely didn't want to become a writer - because they always came to a bad end. However, the moon is a long way away and coming to a bad end isn't that bad after all - so now I'm a writer!"

John is the author of three collections of poetry, the first of which, The Prince's Brief Career, has a foreword by Kerry's own Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill. He also created and wrote The Ivory Tower for RTE Radio, which ran to over one hundred half-hour episodes while the novels based on the series, The Johnny Coffin Diaries and Johnny Coffin School-Dazed are on the shelves in all good bookstores and have even been translated into Italian and Serbian! His poem, The Green Owl, has just been awarded the Listowel Poetry Prize for 2007 for best single poem.

John may be contacted at Tralee Library on 066 714 4444 or via the Kerry County Council Arts Office on 066 718 3541 but as his residency has a duration of only four weeks, interested parties are advised to get in touch as quickly as possible as time with this great writer is bound to book out quickly!