Connie Roberts
Connie Roberts, a County Offaly native, emigrated from Ireland to the United States in 1983. In 2010 she received the Patrick Kavanagh Award for her manuscript Not the Delft School. That same year she was awarded first prize in the Dromineer Literary Festival Poetry Competition. In 2011 Connie received a Literature Bursary Award from the Irish Arts Council. She was nominated for the Hennessy X.O. Literary Awards and was awarded a space in the 2010 Poetry Ireland Introductions Series. Connie has been a finalist in several poetry contests, including the Strokestown International Poetry Competition, the iYeats Poetry Competition (twice), the Allingham Arts Festival Poetry Competition, the Over the Edge New Writer of the Year Award, the North West Words Poetry Prize (twice), the Fermoy International Poetry Competition, the Swift Satire Contest, and the Dana Awards. May 2013 she received the Poetry Collection Award at the Listowel Writers’ Week Festival. Summer 2014 she won the Boyle Arts Festival Poetry Competition. Spring 2015 Arlen House, Dublin published her debut volume, Little Witness, a collection of poetry inspired by her experiences growing up in an industrial school (orphanage) in the Irish midlands. She teaches creative writing at Hofstra University, New York and is part of Hofstra’s Irish Studies program.
