Congratulations to Strokestown Poetry Festival Committee member Louise G Cole, whose poetry book ‘Soft Touch’ was launched last week, chosen for publication by Carol Ann Duffy, the UK Poet Laureate in the Laureate’s Choice series.

Before joining our committee, Louise was winner of our Roscommon Poets’ Prize in 2017. She won the Hennessy Literary Award for Emerging Poetry last year.

With endorsements for her work from Dermot Bolger, Rita Ann Higgins and Jane Clarke, Louise has had two Dublin launches of her new book, the first in Poetry Ireland and another in Books Upstairs.

In May, a new anthology to mark the end of Carol Ann Duffy’s tenure as Poet Laureate will include a selection of Louise’s poetry, alongside work from other Laureate’s Choice writers.

Louise will be reading from ‘Soft Touch’ at this year’s Strokestown International Poetry Festival (on May 5^th), and she has a new poem included in this year’s Strokestown Anthology.

Louise talks about her writing process here: http://www.poetrybusiness.co.uk/louise-g-cole

and her book is available to buy here:

http://www.poetrybusiness.co.uk/shop/995/soft-touch

She blogs here: https://louisegcolewriter.wordpress.com/