ink-stained wings

Róisín Leggett Bohan

Róisín is a writer of poetry and prose. In 2025, she was awarded the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award for her collection ‘We Fall, We Carry’. She is also the joint-first-prize-winner of the Fool for Poetry International Chapbook Competition. Her chapbook ‘We Fall, We Carry’ will be launched at the Cork International Poetry Festival in May 2026. Róisín was longlisted for The Poetry Society’s National Poetry Competition, receiving over 21,000 entries, and was shortlisted for The Alpine Fellowship Poetry Prize, from 2,000 entries, and was a finalist in the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award in 2025. Poetry Ireland showcased her poetry nationwide for Poetry Day, and her work was featured on The Prompt series and Culture Night series on RTE Radio 1. Róisín was also placed third in the Waterford Poetry Prize and Southword Poetry Competition 2025. In 2024, Róisín was runner-up in The Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award for her collection ‘in our mouths we carried’. She was also runner-up in the Listowel Writers’ Week Single Poem Award, third in The Plaza Prose Poem Prize, a finalist in the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award and was shortlisted for The Fish International Poetry Competition. In 2023, she was placed third (out of 3,400 entries) in Magma’s Editors’ Prize for Poetry. She was the winner of flash fiction with Southword #42, the winner for creative non-fiction with Atlantic Currents II, and placed second in the Martín Crawford Short Story Award and From the Well Short Story Competition 2022.

She has been commended/shortlisted for awards including the Allingham, Cúirt, Edward Thomas, Hammond House, Red Line, and MLC Fool for Poetry Chapbook Competition. Róisín was chosen for Poetry Ireland’s Introductions Series 2022, is the co-creator/co-editor of HOWL New Irish Writing, and holds an MA (Hons) in Creative Writing from University College Cork. She also received an Arts Council Literature Bursary, Cork City Artist Bursaries, a Poetry Mentorship with Dedalus Press, the Munster Literature Centre, the Irish Writers Centre and a placement at the Seamus Heaney Poetry School, Belfast. Her work often explores the theme of loss and the courage that lies within vulnerability. Her background in film and experiences as a nurse help frame her writing practice. When she is not writing, she might be seen holding a dog lead, a paintbrush, or a fine cup of coffee.