Lepus Print Authors
Edwina is a dancer, farmer, teacher, film maker and folklorist. She lives on her family farm in County Leitrim with her husband and two children surrounded by her parents, brothers, aunts, uncles and cousins. She loves growing vegetables, knitting, reading books, dancing with her family and friends, playing her fiddle, visiting her neighbours, sowing acorns and sitting in the field watching the seasons change.
In 2004 she set up Áirc Damhsa Culture Club – a social club for children all over Ireland to come together to learn, create and perform through Irish music, song, dance, drama, Gaeilge and folklore. Today, over 8000 children have passed through the club and continue to pass on their love of our Irish culture.
In 2022 she was awarded the TG4 Gradam Comaoine for an outstanding contribution to culture in her community. She dedicated this award to her family and the Leitrim community as they are the people who shared with her all of their music, song, dance, folklore and way of life. For Edwina, community is everything.
Brian Leyden is the author of The Home Place, Sweet Old World: New and Selected Stories, and Summer of ’63. His work for radio includes the documentaries, No Meadows in Manhattan, Even the Walls Were Sweatin’, and An Irish Station Mass. He co-wrote the feature film, Black Ice, which premiered at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival. He scripted The Famine Attic for the Workhouse in Carrick-on-Shannon, and The Sheemore Ambush. His work for the stage includes, Old Flames and Remember Me. He lives in Co. Sligo.
Libby Hart is an Australian poet and the author of three previouscollections of poetry. Wild was shortlisted for the Kenneth SlessorPrize (New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards) and named oneof the books of the year for the Australian Book Review, The Age andThe Sydney Morning Herald. This Floating World was shortlisted forthe Victorian Premier’s Prize for Poetry (Victorian Premier’s LiteraryAwards), Dinny O’Hearn Poetry Prize (The Age Book of the YearAwards) and longlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards.Fresh News from the Arctic won the Anne Elder Award and wasshortlisted for the Mary Gilmore Prize.
Libby lives as a guest on Wurundjeri land in Naarm/Melbourne(Australia). She also calls Maugherow (north Sligo) home.
www.libbyhart.net
Mary Branley is a poet, writer and musician based in north Sligo. She is the author of two collections of poetry: Martin, Let Me Go and A Foot on the Tide. Closely associated with Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership, a children’s arts organisation and publishing house, Mary has facilitated children’s writing for over two decades and thirty-five titles.
Johnny Gogan is a filmmaker whose ten feature films include The Last Bus Home (1997), Mapmaker (2002), Black Ice (2013) and the feature documentaries The Adventures of Flannery (2007), Hubert Butler Witness to the Future (2016), Prisoners of the Moon (2019) and the recently released Groundswell (2021). In addition, he has produced and directed many short films and TV documentaries, including the Galway Film Fleadh Best Short Film winner Stephen. Founding editor of Film Ireland in 1987, other innovations have included Cinema North West and Adaptation Film Festival, a festival dedicated to the exploration of the relationship of screen drama and literature.
Born on 25th February, 1922, Leland was a leading figure of the Irish literary scene, a co-founder of the literary journal Cyphers and the Irish Writers’ Co-operative, Bardwell also established the Scriobh Literary Festival in her adopted Sligo.
Andrea Rossi - Illustrator
Andrea an illustrator, painter and her work is inspired by her love of home, community and everyday life in the West of Ireland. She lives in Connemara with her husband and two children and was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil where she received a degree in Graphic Design at Fundacao Armando Alvares Penteado College and diploma in Fine Arts at Escola Panamericana de Arte. She loves experimenting with traditional materials and uses an array of media on anything she can possibly illustrate. She applies the Irish language in most of her arts and crafts to express her gratitude for the community that embraced her so dearly. When she’s not making art, she loves swimming, watching movies, playing board games, hosting dinner parties, and trying to be a better human.