Joe & Gary Allen - Folk Artists from Ballymena Northern Ireland
Gary Allen was born in Ballymena, Co. Antrim. He is a Poet, short story writer and novelist.
Published in magazines in Ireland, Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, U.S.A. and throughout Europe, including; Agenda, Ambit, Antigonish Review, Edinburgh Review, Irish Pages, London Magazine, Poetry Ireland Review, Poetry New Zealand, The Poetry Review, The Reader, South Carolina Review, Stand, The Yellow Nib, etc. Four pamphlets; ‘Irish Notes,’ K. T. Publications, 1995; The Farthest Circle,’ K.T. Publications, 1996; ‘Mending Churches,’ Lapwing Publications, 1997; ‘Making Waves,’ Flarestack Publishing,1998. Six full length collections; ‘Languages’, Flambard/Black Mountain Press, 2002; ‘Exile’, Black Mountain Press, 2004; ‘North of Nowhere’, Lagan Press, 2006; ‘Iscariot’s Dream’, Agenda Editions, 2008; ‘The Bone House’, Lagan Press, 2008; ‘The Next Room’, Lapwing Publications, 2010. A new collection, ‘Ha, Ha’, is due early 2011 from Lagan Press. A collections of short stories was published by Lagan Press, 2007, and a novel, ‘Cillin’, by Black Mountain Press, 2005. He has just finished a new novel, ‘Twenty Eight Worlds’. He has work included in six anthologies; ‘Breaking the skin – 21st Century Irish Poetry’, Black Mountain Press, ‘The Backyards of Heaven – Contemporary Poetry from Ireland, New Foundland and Labrador’, ‘Magnetic North – Contemporary Poetry from the North of Ireland’, Verbal Arts Centre, ‘The New North’, Wake Forest University Press, South Carolina, to be republished by Salt Ireland, January 2011, ‘Sixty Years’, Acumen Publications.
Joseph Allen was born in Ballymena, Co. Antrim. He is a Poet, Delta Blues guitarist, slide guitarist, harmonica player and singer.
He has published poems in magazines in Ireland, Britain, Canada, U.S.A. and throughout Europe, including; Acumen, Agenda, The Antigonish Review, Cyphers, London Magazine, Orbis, Poetry Ireland Review, Poetry Salzburg Review, The Reader, Ropes, The Shop, The South Carolina Review, etc. He has published two pamphlets of poetry; ‘The Sound of Rooms’, National Poetry Foundation, 2000 and ‘Night Patrol’, Lapwing Publications, 2001. He has also published two full length collections; ‘Landscaping’, Flambard/Black Mountain Press, 2003 and ‘Family Plot’, Lagan Press, 2008. A new collection; ‘Looking for Robert Johnson’, is due in early 2011 from Lagan Press. As a Blues Artist he has played throughout Ireland, Britain and Europe. He has released three c.d.s; ‘Joe Allen – Blues’, 2008, ‘North Country Blues’, 2009 and ‘Big Road Blues’, 2010 on the J A Blues Label. He is currently working on a new C.D.
