Our Parlour: Samuel Burnside

Maryann Quigley interviews the artist Samuel Burnside who lives and works in the city of Derry where he was founder and first Director of the Verbal Arts Centre, an educational charity he established in 1992 to promote literature in all its forms.

He is the author of The Cathedral (1989) a long poem that won the Sunday Tribune/Hennessy Literary Award for Poetry in that year. His work has attracted a number of literary prizes, including an Allingham Poetry Prize ; the University of Ulster’s McCrea Literary Award for Literature and a Bass Ireland Award.

His poetry has been published and broadcast widely.