About this book

out of emptied cups explores what it means to be human—a consciousness contained within a shell that dictates so much of what our experience of life will be. Including internationally award-winning and shortlisted pieces, these strongly felt poems interrogate what it means to be a woman in a world where the female body still preordains so much for the person it contains. Deliberately weaving in and out of, and cross-referencing, each other, these poems reveal multiple perspectives on the same or related narratives.

At times unabashedly political, this book plumbs the poet’s own experiences of birth, death, loss, treatment/mistreatment and place in the world—as a woman, as an immigrant, as a parent, as a former environment journalist/author depicting the decline of our planet, as a human being questioning our treatment of others based on lines on a map and ‘so many lengths/of slick red tape’.

‘if I were to tell you’ won 1st Prize in the 2018 Alice Sinclair Memorial Writing Competition (Fellowship of Australian Writers - Lake Macquarie/NSW, Australia).

‘whisperings’ won 1st Prize in the Henry Lawson Verse; Short Story Competition 2018 – Traditional Verse (Australia).

‘Still I Rise’ won 3rd Prize in the Women’s National Book Association (USA) Sixth Annual Writing Contest 2018.

‘Category four’ won the Edith Cowan Writer's Centre Glen Phillips Novice Writer Award 2017 (Australia).

‘death in the city’ was shortlisted for the Bedford International Writing Competition 2017 (UK)

‘All Souls’ was Highly Commended in the Fellowship of Australian Writers Queensland Literary Competition 2018.

‘scion’ received Honorable Mention in the 45th New Millennium Writing Awards 2018 (USA).

‘Portrait of a woman walking home’, ‘you have to be tough to be a man’, ‘PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE ANIMALS’, ‘crush’, ‘for all the #MeToos’, ‘Dear son’ and ‘Still I rise’ were shortlisted for the Overton Poetry Prize 2018 (UK).

‘nothing happens in the burbs’ was shortlisted for the Galway University Hospital Arts Trust Poems for Patience Competition 2019 (Ireland).

‘sideshow was shortlisted for the Bangor Forty Words Competition 2019 (Northern Ireland).

‘in a sunburnt country’ was longlisted for the University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor's International Poetry Prize 2018 (Australia).

‘a great mirror’, ‘cup in hand’ and ‘All Souls’ were finalists in the Summer Literary Series 2018 Fiction; Poetry Contest (Canada).

‘final offensive’ was Commended in the Bangor Forty Words Competition 2018 (Northern Ireland).

‘burnt offerings’ was Poem of the Week on HeadStuff arts hub in May 2018 (Ireland).

She has won or been shortlisted for poetry prizes in Ireland, Northern Ireland, the USA, the UK, Canada and Australia – including the Henry Lawson Poetry Competition 2018 – Traditional Verse (Australia); the Women’s National Book Association Poetry Competition 2018 (USA); Hennessy New Irish Writing 2015 and 2017 (Ireland); Cúirt International Poetry Prize 2017 (Ireland); Overton Poetry Prize 2019 (UK); Bedford International Writing Competition 2018 (UK); and the Fellowship of Australian Writers Queensland Literary Competition. She was longlisted for the University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor's International Poetry Prize 2018.

Anne passionately believes that every poem, like all art, should leave you changed by the experience. Her poems feature internationally in newspapers, magazines, journals, anthologies, broadcasts, podcasts, music albums, stage shows and art exhibitions – Quiddity, Entropy, The Irish Times, The Canberra Times, apt, Cordite, The Murmur House, Papaya Press, Eureka Street, The Incubator, FourXFour (Poetry Northern Ireland), DASH (California State University), The Honest Ulsterman, Déraciné, The Stony Thursday Book, The Australian Poetry Collaboration, Into The Void Magazine, ROPES, Autonomy anthology, Plumwood Mountain, Abridged, Verity La, The Monologue Adventure, the Poetry Pharmacy, The Poets’ Republic and Burning House Press among others. She is author of where the lost things go (Salmon Poetry 2017, 2nd ed 2018) and out of emptied cups (Salmon Poetry 2019).

Anne holds a Law Degree from University College Dublin and qualifications in Media Communications.