Anne Walsh Donnelly is a familiar face at Fly on the Wall and we are delighted to welcome her back with her highly anticipated follow-up ‘Odd As F*ck’. Her previous collection ‘The Woman With An Owl Tattoo’ was awarded 2nd Prize for the International Poetry Book Awards in 2020. With her characteristic storytelling power, Anne weaves an absorbing exploration of relationships and female identity. In the titular poem she considers women who do not fit neatly into their boxes. These poems ask what it means to be ‘odd’, to stray from traditional roles, to be undomesticated.
I Kicked Open
my childhood home
door hinges screeched
I ducked when a house-wren
dropped from the rafters chirping
like an alarm clock. I yanked open cupboards,
swiped cobwebs, spiders fell. A whimper stopped
my foot from stamping the creatures, that once made my six-year-old legs, leap into my mother’s lap. The flagstones parted. I crept downstairs. You were in the candle-lit cellar, alive,
waiting for me to set you free,
my wild and precious self.
Anne Walsh Donnelly lives in Ireland with two teenagers and works as a Student Services Officer in a third-level college. Her work has been published in several literary outlets including The Irish Times, Crannog, Boyne Berries, The Blue Nib, Cold Coffee Stand, Ariel, Heart and Humanity, Inside the Bell Jar, Please Hear What I’m Not Saying and Star82 Review.
Her short stories have been shortlisted in competitions such as the Over The Edge New Writer of the Year Award (2014, 2016), Fish International Prize (2015) and the RTE Radio One Frances Mac Manus competition (2014, 2015).
Her poems were highly commended in the Over The Edge New Writer of the Year Award (2017 & 2018). She won the Spring 2018 Blue Nib poetry chapbook competition and also the 2018 Over the Edge Fiction Slam. She was also nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2018.
To express early interest in 'Odd As F*ck', you can reach Isabelle Kenyon via Flyonthewallpress@hotmail.com. The collection will be released in May 2021.
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