About Katy

Writing has been a hobby for most of Katy's adult life, taking the form of children’s stories and  autobiography. She started writing poetry after the death of her father, poet Derek Mahon, in 2020, and since then, she has taken several writing courses, including two with Helen Ivory through the National Centre for Writing/UEA. She also won a place  on Gallery Press's Gallery Goes Workshopping with Grace Wilentz. Katy has undertaken a collaboration with English seascape artist Carolyn Coles for York Open Studios 2021, where she recorded poems as a soundscape for the artwork. Her poems have appeared in a number of Irish and English journals, most recently HOWL New Irish Writing, Bad Lilies, Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal, The Honest Ulsterman and The High Window. Katy was New Irish Writing's featured poet in the Irish Independent in February 2022, and her debut chapbook was published by Dreich in June 2022. 

Katy is studying copyediting and proofreading through the renowned CIEP, and she hopes to complement her poetry writing (and piano teaching) with work in these fields.