About Me

Mel works as a poet, novelist and artist, having published a novel, Ripples on the Lake with The Forest Press and having had various poems published both online, in magazines and in The Mallow Star (a local newspaper) and The Evening Echo (a regional newspaper), as well as anthologies produced by Mallow Scribes, a local writer’s group of which Mel is a member and The Kanturk Arts Festival. She has also performed as a poet for various Mallow arts events and at the O Bheal poetry open mic session in Cork City. Mel has also had a number of exhibitions, both solo and joint, in London and Ireland since embarking on her artistic career in 2000, using both conventional spaces as well as more “alternative” ones such as cafes, bars, restaurants, even churches. Her most recent exhibition was in the West End Arts Studios, an Arts Centre in her native Mallow in June 2024. Mel is fascinated with imagery and the creative potential of language and writes in a style she calls “fusion”, a poetry-prose hybrid. As well as working as an artist and writer, Mel works as a human rights campaigner/advocate, having started with the Anti Apartheid movement at University in the late 1980’s, where she studied Chemistry. She also does some animal rights/environmental justice work. Mel’s original career was in Research and Development (microelectronics), working for a research institute affiliated with University College Cork. Mel lives in Mallow, Co Cork, sharing accommodation with a Small Black and White Friend called Rainbow Dog.