Anne Walsh Donnelly

Poet and Playwright

Anne Walsh Donnelly is an LGBTQ+ writer. Orginally from Carlow in the south-east of Ireland, she now lives in Mayo in the west of Ireland.

She is the author of the poetic memoir, ‘The Woman With An Owl Tattoo,’ and the poetry collection, ‘Odd as F*ck,’ both published by Fly on the Wall press and available to buy on this website.

Her one-act play, ‘My Dead Husband’s Hereford Bull,’ explores sexuality and identity in rural Ireland. It was awarded a bursary from the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival in 2020 and has been performed in various venues including the Amateur Drama One-Act Circuit in Ireland in 2022. A shorter version of the script was runner-up in the Claremorris Drama and Fringe Festival.

Anne says, “I experiment, take risks, run wild on the page, always hoping my work will resonate with the reader. I like to explore the rural Irish LGBTQ+ experience in my plays and poetry.”

She has been described by the Irish poet, Kevin Higgins as “a poet of exceptional bravery, a pretty sensational original voice. I hope the poetry world doesn’t tame her, though no doubt it will try.”

Anne loves to read her work and talk about all things creative. She is available for public readings, podcasts, workshops and interviews. A sample of her reading can be seen here.

Recognition for Anne's work

Shortlisted for the 2019 Hennessy/Irish Times New Irish Writing Literary Award.

Poet Laureate for Belmullet, Co. Mayo, 2021

2nd place in the International Poetry Book Awards, 2020 for her memoir, 'The Woman With An Owl Tattoo.'

Selected for the Poetry Ireland Introductions Series 2019 and Words Ireland Mentorship Programme in 2020

Shortlisted for the Fish International Prize and the RTE Radio One Frances Mac Manus competitions.

Odd As F*ck

Odd As F*ck is Anne’s debut full length poetry collection. Her poems reflect on family relationships, mental health, sexuality, ageing and motherhood.

‘It recounts one woman’s journey through pain and growth. The poems are poignant, stark, and beautiful, heavy with unanswered questions, but buoyed up by levity. This is potent work.’

Nuala O’Connor, author and poet.

The Woman With An Owl Tattoo

This life-affirming poetry chapbook reflects on the author’s growth since the ending of her marriage and what it means to unearth one’s true sexual orientation, in mid-life. Anne Walsh Donnelly’s intimate exploration of sexuality and identity is both brave and touching, marking this debut collection as a triumph.

Order it on site and get a copy signed by Anne delivered to your address.

Recently recorded interview with Anne

In an exceptionally moving interview Anne opens up about the ending of her marriage, her struggles with her mental health and her ‘coming-out’ journey.

What reviewers Say

These are personal poems, where the reader shares with the poet a space as intimate as the conjugal bed. From the everyday idiom of housewives and farmers to the imagined voices of beasts and inanimate objects, Anne Walsh Donnelly captures the humour and pathos or real life with unique honesty.

Audrey Molly Poet and Author of Satyress

Anne Walsh Donnelly states that Death is nothing, it is everything - this could be the manifesto for her fierce and delicate poetry. A disarming openness and honesty lights up every poem while her voice never loses its humour or balance ranging from the visionary to a wonderfully universal everyday demotic.

Martina Evans Poet and Author

Anne Walsh Donnelly is by far the most daring poet to emerge in Ireland of late. The starkly honest and overt sexuality which pervades Anne’s poetry make the work of pretty much all her contemporaries appear repressed and backward-looking in comparison. This publication would certainly have been banned in the Ireland of the past. Indeed, she is one of the few poets around whose work has the glorious ability to get moralistic, supposedly liberal eyebrows twitching.

Kevin Higgins, Author of Song of Songs 2.0: New & Selected Poems (Salmon Poetry, 2017).