William Keohane is an Irish writer. His essays have been published in the Irish literary magazine The Stinging Fly , and men's magazine, British GQ .
Keohane graduated with an MA in creative writing from University of Limerick, and also holds an undergraduate degree in psychology and sociology from the same university. [1] He was New Irish Writing's poetry winner in March 2022. [2] In 2021, he was shortlisted for the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award and received a Literature Bursary Award from the Arts Council. He was selected for the Poetry Ireland Introductions series. [3]
In 2023, he was announced as guest editor of Trumpet, an annual literary pamphlet. [4] As of 2022, Keohane is the current writer-in-residence at Ormston House, Limerick. [5] He has held residencies in Tin House, Portland, Oregon, [6] Cill Rialaig, County Kerry, [7] and SÍM in Reykjavík, Iceland. [8]
Keohane was invited to speak at Museum of Literature Ireland for the event celebrating 100 years of James Joyce's Ulysses in 2022. [9] He performed a reading of a sequence of 52 poems in the Belltable Arts Centre, Waterford Institute of Technology and Crawford Art Gallery. [10] [11] The series, 'Boxing Day', reflects on Keohane's experience of gender transition. [12] In November 2022, he collaborated with the composer Ailís Ní Ríain and students in the University of Galway on the performance "Reflections on Loss: Poetry, Music and Performance". [13]
In May 2021, [14] Keohane founded Trans Limerick Community (TLC), a voluntary group that support trans people in the Limerick area and highlighting issues around access to appropriate healthcare and mental health support. [15] [16] He has spoken out about his own experiences in accessing gender affirming healthcare, and the need to travel outside Ireland to do so. [12] [17] He was invited to speak about TLC at Denise Chaila's concert at King John's Castle, Limerick in August 2022, when he also read two of his poems. [18]