Creative writing MA student Paul Asta, right,  will feature in the second annual Best New British and Irish Poets anthology, due from Eyewear Publishing in March 2017. http://store.eyewearpublishing.com/  Paul, who’s on a Fulbright scholarship at UCC, was included for his poem, Apiarist’s Chest. 

Modelled on the American Great American Poetry series, running since 1988, the first Best New British and Irish Poets was published last year and looks set to be a fixture on the poetry calendar. In all, the work of 50 “rising stars” of poetry will be included in the second anthology.

The competition to be selected  is open to any poet of British or Irish citizenship and/or UK or Irish residency who has not yet published a full-length collection.

This year’s entries were adjudicated by the British poet Luke Kennard http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/staff/profiles/fcw/kennard-luke.aspx.  Kennard, the author of six collections, was shortlisted for the Forward Prize in 2007.  He was named as one of the Poetry Book Society‘s Next Generation Poets in 2014. https://www.poetrybooks.co.uk .He lectures at the University of Birmingham.