Jessie Lendennie is a poet and Managing Director of Salmon Publishing, one of Ireland's leading literary publishers. She was born in Arkansas, USA and educated at King's College, London, England. She moved to Galway, Co. Galway, Ireland in 1981 and was a founder member of the Galway Writing Workshop in October of that year. She was a founding editor of 'The Salmon International Literary Journal' (1982) and co-founder of Salmon Publishing, 1985. Since 1986 she has run the press at its editor and Managing Director; commissioning, editing and publishing over 200 books; many of which were first collections from Irish women writers; a groundbreaking move in Irish poetry.

She was the first Chairperson of the Poetry Co-Operative which was set up in 1983 to promote the work of local poets and bring international poets to the West of Ireland. She was co-organiser of the first Galway International Poetry Festival in 1984 and a founding member, in 1985, of the organising committee of Cúirt, the International Literature Festival in Galway.

Her poetry has been anthologised in Irish Poetry Now: Other Voices, Unveiling Treasures: The Attic Guide To The Published Works of Irish Women Literary Writers, The White Page: Twentieth Century Irish Women Poets; among others. In 1990 she was nominated for a Bank of Ireland Arts Award for service to the arts in Ireland. Her prose-poem Daughter (1988, reissued 2001 as Daughter and Other Poems demonstrates her ability to write powerfully about the darkness experienced in childhood and its effects, in turn, which direct the way life and the imagination are shaped by these shadows. Lendennie is also the author of The Salmon Guide to Poetry Publishing in Ireland (1990) and The Salmon Guide to Creative Writing in Ireland (1993).

PUBLICATIONS

Books

Daughter - a prose poem (Salmon Publishing/Signpost Press, 1988, reprinted 2001
The Salmon Guide to Poetry Publishing in Ireland (Salmon, 1990)
The Salmon Guide to Creative Writing in Ireland (Salmon, 1992)

Anthologies

Irish Spirit (ed. Patricia Monaghan. Wolfhound, 2001)
The White Page: Twentieth Century Irish Women Poets (ed, Joan McBreen, Salmon 1999)
Unveiling Treasures (ed. Ann Owen Weekes. Attic Press, 1993)
Irish Poetry Now (ed. Gabriel Fitzmaurice. Wolfhound Press, 1993)
Faces of Galway (1991)
The Great Book of Ireland (Poetry Ireland)
Midland Review (ed. Nuala Archer, University of Oklahoma, 1986)

LECTURES, READINGS & WORKSHOPS

2003

October

• Irish Culutral Center, Buffalo (lecture)
• Nichols School, Buffalo (classroom seminar)
• Alfred University, Alfred NY (lecture)
• Olean Library, Olean, NY (lecture)
• Bridgewater State College, MA. Salmon Session at the American Confrence for Irish Studies
• St Lawrence University, Canton, NY. (lecture)
• Reading at Heartland Cafe, Chicago, with James Liddy, Eamonn Wall, Pat Monaghan.
  

2002

• Salmon 21st Anniversary celebration, Cuirt International Festival of Literature, Galway
  
• May: Feile na Beltaine, Dingle, Co. Kerry

See the Intro/New page for forthcoming events »»»»

2001

• March - Bloomfield College , New Jersey
• April: Wordsworth Bookshop, Little Rock Arkansas
• April: Henderson State College, Arkadelphia, Arkansas
• April: That Bookstore in Blytheville, Blytheville, Arkansas
• April: Marshall University, Huntingdon West Virginia
• April: Huntingdon, WV, Workshop
• April: University of Missouri, St. Louis
• April: University of Southern Illiinois, Carbondale
• May: De Paul University, Chicago
• May: The Loft, Minneapolis, Minnesota

2000

• May: York University, Tornoto
• May; Anchorage, Alaska
• April Curit International Festival of Literature, Galway

1999

• Feb: Munster literature Festival, Cork
• April: Trintiy College, Dublin, forum on Irish women poets (panelist)
• April: Promotional tour: Anchorage, Fairbanks, Homer, Alaska
• June: Galway Arts Centre - reading
• November: Cafe Teatre , Copenhagen, Denmark - reading

1998

• Nov 1998 -ongoing Salmon Writing Workshops, Cliffs of Moher
• Sept. 1998 o Kilrush, Co. Clare Workhshop
• July 1998 o Kilrush, Co. Clare Workshop
• May 1998 o Feile na Beltaine, Dingle - workshop
• Mar. - Apr. 1998 o University of Alaska, Fairbanks - workshops
• Into the Woods Bookshop, Fairbanks - lecture
• University of Alaska, Anchorage: Panel on women writers
• Writers' Conference Spring '98, Kilrush, Co.Clare

1997

• Sept. - Dec. 1997 o The Belltable Arts Centre, Limerick; Creative Writing
• Sept. - Dec. 1997 o Burren College of Art: Creative writing
• July 1997 o Writing Across Borders, Letterkenny, Co. Donegal, Reading and
  workshop
• May 1997 o Feila na Bealtaine, Dingle - workshop
• April 1997 o Poetry Masterclass, Cúirt International Literary Festival, Galway
• March 1997 o Literary Weekend at Ballintaggart House, Dingle -workshop

1996

• September Triskel Arts Centre, Cork - reading
• May Feile na Bealtaine, Dingle - reading

1995

• August The Poet's House, Antrim - Series of workshops

1994

• October Ards Writers' Open Festival, Newtownards, Co. Down
• September Sligo Literary Festival
• August Boyle Arts Festival, Roscommon
• May Killybegs International Writer's Conference, Donegal
• April Kerry Arts Festival, Tralee

1993

• May 1993 Moycullen Writers' Workshop
• Jan 1990 Kenny's Bookshop, Galway. Lecture
• 1988 - 1991 University College, Galway: Extra Mural Creative Writing facilitator

1989

• Cre na Cille, Tuam
• Ennis Arts Festival
• Garter Lane Arts Centre, Waterford
• March 1989 Yale University, U.S.A.: Contemporary Irish Writing
• Rutgers University, U.S.A.: Contemporary Irish Writing

1988

• July University College, Galway: Women Writers (lecture)
• October Alliance Française (Dublin)
• June Co-Director of the Poetry Workshop during National Writers' Week, Listowel, Ireland.
• May o The Irish Literary Festival, London
• Kentish Town Library, London
• Shepherd's Bush Library, London
• Ealing, London
• Brent Irish Centre, London
• Haringay Irish Centre, London
• Oval Arts Centre, Kennington
  
• Bloomfield College, Bloomfield, New Jersey, U.S.A.
• DC Space, Washington D.C., U.S.A.
• Towson State University, Towson, Maryland, U.S.A
• Oklahoma State Univesity, Stillwater, Oklahoma, U.S.A.
• The Book Rack, Blytheville, Arkansas, U.S.A.
• Clinton Public Library, Clinton, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

1987

• Moderator of Discussion Group/Workshop with community
  writing groups during International Women's Interdisciplinary Congress, Dublin
• Director of the Poetry Workshop during Cúirt International Poetry Festival, Galway
• March 1987 o Alliance Française (Dublin)
• 1981 o Founder Member and Organiser of the Galway Writing Workshop

OTHER ACTIVITIES

1995

• North Clare Writers' Journal - Editor
• Cúirt Panel on Irish Writing

June 1989

• Chairperson: Discussion on Women's Writing Feminist Literature,
  Art or Polemics

June 1988

• Adviser to the Poetry Committee of the Galway Arts Centre

1986

• Member of the Committee of the Cúirt International Poetry Festival, Galway

1985

• Member of the Committee to establish the first Galway International Poetry Festival (Cúirt)

Sept '86 - Jan '87

• Organiser of poetry and short story readings in Galway City Library

1983

• Founder Member and Chairperson of the Poetry Cooperative
  (Est. 1983) - working in conjunction with Poetry Ireland to bring international writers to the West of Ireland and to provide venues
  for talented local writers.

ARTICLES, INTERVIEWS AND REVIEWS

PRINT and INTERNET

• Terrain.org
• The Poetry Porch.com
• WritingNow.com
• The Drunken Boat.com

• Anchorage Daily News (2001)
• Arkansas Democrat (2001)
• Arkansas Free Press (2001)
• Bellingham Herald (Dec., 1981)
• Books Ireland (1989, 1995)
• City Tribune (Galway, Jan. 1991)
• Clare Champion (May 1996)
• Clonmel Nationalist (May 1988)
• Colby Quarterly (Colby College, Waterville, ME, Dec. 1992)
• Courier News (Blytheville, Arkansas, April 1988.2001)
• Éire/Ireland (1992)
• Galway Advertiser (1982, 1984, 1985, 1986, June 1988, Sept. 1988, April 1991, Sept. 1991, Dec. 1991, Sept. 1994, 1996, 1998)
• Graph (1989)
• In Dublin (Aug., 1988)
• In Galway (May 1988)
• Irish Literary Supplement (1989, Spring 1992)
• Irish Tatler (Oct. 1996)
• The Irish Times (1988, 1991,1999)
• Irish Examiner (2001)
• Irish Independent (2001)
• The Write Place - profile in The Irish Times (May 1999)
• News Press Weekender (Oklahoma, April 1988)
• Poet's Market (USA, 1990)
• Poetry Australia (1990)
• The Sunday Business Post (October 1996)
• The Sunday Press (Feb, 1989)
• Stillwater Arts and Humanities Council Newsletter (Oklahoma, April 1988)
• Washington Review (Aug/Sept. 1989)
• Women's Political Journal (1997)
• Women's Poetry in Contemporary Ireland, a paper presented by Joan
• McBreen at the 1st Kerry International Summer School (1994)

RADIO & TELEVISION - (1988 - 1999)

• Bookside
• Appraisal
• Imprint
• The Arts Show
• Poet's Chair
• Poetry Now
• The Gay Byrne Show
• The David Hanley Show
• The Marian Finucane Show
• Clare FM
• Galway Bay FM
• The Sunday Show, RTE