Emily Cullen is a Galway-based writer, scholar, curator and harper. She is the Meskell poet in Residence at the University of Limerick where she lectures on the MA in Creative Writing. Emily was the inaugural Arts Officer of NUI Galway between 1999 and 2002. Her first collection, No Vague Utopia, was published by Ainnir Publishing in 2003. In 2004, Emily was appointed Curator of the national Patrick Kavanagh Centenary celebrations Also in 2004, she was selected for the Poetry Ireland Introductions series. Awarded an IRC Government of Ireland fellowship for her doctoral study on the Irish harp, Emily completed her Ph.D. in English in 2008. She frequently publishes essays on Irish music and cultural history and she is also a qualified teacher of the harp who has performed throughout Europe, Australia and the United States. A former member of the Belfast Harp Orchestra, Emily has recorded on a number of albums and also as a solo artist, giving lectures and recitals nationally and internationally. Emily’s second collection of poetry, In Between Angels and Animals, was published by Arlen House in 2013 and her third collection, Conditional Perfect (Doire Press, 2019) was included in the Irish Times roundup of “the best poetry of 2019.” For two years, Emily served as Programme Director of Galway’s Cúirt International Festival of Literature. Before joining the teaching team at UL, she taught Creative Writing and Poetry at the University of Melbourne and with the School of English at the University of Galway. Emily has received professional development funding and two Agility Awards from the Arts Council of Ireland. Commissions received include: resident poet on '1923 Reflections' Decade of Centenaries Project 2023, Dromineer Literary Festival 2022, Galway County Council Decade of Commemorations Committee 2021, Strokestown International Poetry Festival 2020.