Milena Williamson is a poet. She has a PhD and MA in poetry from the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s University Belfast and a BA in English literature and creative writing from Oberlin College in Ohio.

Her debut pamphlet, Charm for Catching a Train, was published in 2022 with Green Bottle Press. The pamphlet progresses from an unexpected journey and homesickness toward belonging and newfound love. The poems explore what it means to live in different places – in Pennsylvania and in Belfast – and how these places, in turn, shape our identities.

Her debut poetry collection, Into the Night that Flies So Fast, was published with Dedalus Press in 2024. In this book, the speaker journeys to the small County Tipperary village of Ballyvadlea, to investigate the life and death of Bridget Cleary, in 1895 burned to death by her family on suspicion of being a fairy changeling. Fusing docupoetry and true crime, travelogue and drama, the book introduces a compelling cast of characters as the ill-fated Bridget, her family and members of her community all come onstage to give their versions of events. In the ‘Interval’ of this play for voices, the speaker herself draws back from Bridget’s story to reflect on her own new life in Ireland.

Milena has been recognised by the Society of Authors, receiving the Eric Gregory Award for outstanding work from poets under the age of thirty. She has also received the Ireland Chair of Poetry Trust project award. Her work has been supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. In 2023, she was the Ciaran Carson Writing and the City Fellow at the Seamus Heaney Centre.

For more information: https://www.milenawilliamson.com and https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/studentTheses/the-garden-cannot-be-unplanted-and-ciaran-carsons-war-corresponde

Photo credit: Ger Holland