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Deirdre Cartmill is a poet and writer from Northern Ireland.

Biography
Deirdre Cartmill was born in Moy, Co Tyrone, Northern Ireland. Her debut poetry collection Midnight Solo was published by Lagan Press in 2004. Her second collection The Return of the Buffalo will be published in 2012.

Midnight Solo was described by The Newsletter as “an arresting first collection of ferocious and poignant verse.”

She received an Artists' Career Enhancement Scheme Award from the Arts Council in 2011 and spent a year affiliated with the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry at Queen's University. This followed Literature Awards from the Arts Council in 2008, 2003 and 2000. She’s previously been shortlisted for a Hennessy Literary Award and been a finalist in the Scottish International Open Poetry Competition.

Her poems have appeared in many anthologies including The Blackbird’s Nest (Blackstaff Press), Reactions 5 (Pen & Inc Press), Our Shared Japan (Dedalus Press), Magnetic North (Lagan Press), New Soundings (Blackstaff Press), Breaking the Skin (Black Mountain Press) and The Lonely Poets’ Guide To Belfast.

She has also widely published in magazines and journals including Metre, Poetry Ireland, The Shop, The Sunday Tribune, Crannog, Iota, Fortnight, Oxford Magazine, The Ulster Tatler Literary Miscellany and The Stinging Fly.

She was a Writer-in-Residence at the Belfast Book Festival 2011. She holds an MA with Distinction in Creative Writing from Queen’s University, Belfast. She facilitates many creative writing workshops. She is part of Poetry Ireland’s Writers in Schools scheme. She has also facilitated workshops for Poetry in Motion.

She has given many poetry readings at events and festivals, most recently at the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris, the Belfast Festival at Queen’s, the Belfast Book Festival and the Over The Edge Readings Series in Galway sponsored by Poetry Ireland.

She has also written for film, television and radio as Deirdre Alexander. Her short film Two Little Boys was filmed in 2012.

She has written for RTE’s Fair City and award winning Irish teen drama Seacht. She was a finalist in the inaugural Red Planet Prize, won the Claddagh Films Script Award and was a winner in the BBC Writersroom Undercover competition for staff. She was one of 12 writers from across the UK selected for Channel 4’s Screenwriting Course in 2011.

Her short comedy Keeping Mum was selected for BBCNI’s Funny Bones scheme and broadcast on Radio Ulster. She has also written sketches for radio. She has previously had short fiction published. She also worked as a music journalist for several years.

She currently lives in Belfast with her husband.

She blogs at www.deirdrecartmill.com.

Poetry Awards
•	2011 Arts Council of Northern Ireland Artists’ Career Enhancement Scheme Award.

•	2008 Arts Council of Northern Ireland Support for the Individual Artist Award.

•	2003 Arts Council of Northern Ireland Support for the Individual Artist Award.

•	2000 Arts Council of Northern Ireland Support for the Individual Artist Award.

•	Hennessy Literary Award (Shortlisted)

•	Scottish International Open Poetry Competition (Finalist)

Scripwriting Awards
•	2008 Red Planet Prize (Finalist)

•	2007 BBC Writersroom Undercover Competition

•	2003 Claddagh Films Script Award