A Stint in Your Spotlight

Mark is a published poet from, and living in, Dublin that has been writing poetry since childhood. Focusing seriously on the craft in his late twenties, he has since had numerous pieces published in a variety of literary journals and anthologies, across the world (The North, Softblow, Assaracus) as well as prominently in Ireland (The Irish Times, The Irish Independent, Poetry Ireland Review, Banshee, Skylight47, The Honest Ulsterman and many more).

His first collection, Nightlight, was published in February 2023, and his second, Real Estate, in May 2026, both by Salmon Poetry. He has also published six chapbooks: Circumference (Finishing Line Press, 2018), Carcass (Seven Kitchens Press, 2020), HIKE (Bear Creek, 2022, ltd. ed. – out of print), the Choose Your Own Adventure Sonnet Faultlines (online, 2022 / print, March 2024), I Was a Teenage Exoricst (Chaps Poetry, 2024) and the queer ekphrastic painting chapbook, Masters (The Emma Press, 2025). Current/future projects include: a third collection, The New Life; a verse novel, Circumference (a full-length extension of the 2018 chapbook); and a collection of haiku, Night Trees.

He also occasionally writes short stories and began to publish them in earnest in 2021. As a playwright, he presented his first full-length play, A Stint in Your Spotlight (Dir. Antoinette Duffy) in 2008 as part of the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival and in 2010 he returned to the Festival with his one act play, The Middle Distance (Dir. Shane Carr). In 2011, he presented Saliva (Dir. Emma Weafer), a one-act play, that ran as part of the Irish Theatre Shorts programme in the 2011 International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival. He returned to the festival in 2014 with Blue Boy , a one-act play told entirely in verse, that he also performed. You can find out more about his fiction and plays here.

He has a BA (Hons.) in English Literature with an emphasis on Creative Writing, Prose and Dramatic Text from Brunel University, London, an MA in Creative Writing from Queens University and has completed a one year performance course at the Gaiety School of Acting. He was awarded a mentorship with the poet Nell Regan for 2018/2019 by Words Ireland under their National Mentorship Scheme. You can find out more about his recent awards here.