Journal Launch

16 December 2023 at 6:30pm

Profiles is an annual literary and vis-arts journal dedicated to portraiture in prose and visual art. The James Joyce Centre to celebrated Profiles‘ second issue on Saturday, 16 December 2023 at 6:30pm with readings from Claire Kieffer, Graham Donlon, John Moriarty, and Sofie de Smyter and presentations by exhibiting artists David Stephenson, Emily Mc Gardle, and Daniel Sexton. The launch will also include an exhibition featuring works by Erin de Burca, Suzanne Dolan, Nathan Lowry, Emily Mc Gardle, Duc Van Pham, Manon West, David Stephenson and Daniel Sexton.

This event was supported by Dublin City Council and Dublin: UNESCO City of Literature.

The issues can be purchased at the James Joyce Center. It can also be ordered here: https://profilesjournal.bigcartel.com/product/profiles-issue-2.

Sofie De Smyter is an English TA at KU Leuven (Belgium) and has stories in The Belfield Literary Review (edited by Paul Perry and Niamh Campell), Bright Flash Literary Review and Litro. She was shortlisted for the Scratch A4 competition.

Graham Donlon is a first-time short story writer who also works on screenplays and longer-form works. His short screenplay ‘Tether’ was a finalist in the 2022 Waterford International Film Festival and his micro-fiction ‘Piano Sings’ was a finalist in the 2022 Michael Mullen Charity Fund Competition. He comes from Dublin and lives in Co. Kildare. He is currently working on his first novel.

Claire-Lise Kieffer has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Galway. Her fiction has appeared in literary journals Banshee, Crossways, The Honest Ulsterman, Bending Genres, and more. She has received the 2022 Arts Council Agility Award to work on a collection of short stories. You can follow her on Twitter @clairelise_poet and on Instagram @clairelisekieffer.

John Moriarty is a Creative Writing student at Queen’s University Belfast. He has previously written fiction for BBC Storytellers, The Apiary, and Humour Me Magazine. He was born in Dublin and lives in Belfast with his wife, his daughter, and their cat.

Emily McGardle is a printmaker from Co. Monaghan. Her practice consists primarily of screenprinting and drawing. Using hand-drawn artwork, she creates multi-layer screenprints which combine humour, satire, and parody.

Daniel Sexton, hailing from Co. Limerick, qualified with a Masters in Art and Education from the Crawford College of Art and Design, Cork. His paintings are mainly figurative that questions the morals of people. His ongoing project ‘Nexus,’ currently showcased at Spike Island in Cork, serves as an exhibition embodying connections, collaborations, and partnerships cultivated by the Education Unit in Cork Prison (Cork ETB). His paintings are displayed in several galleries across Ireland, including the Mermaid Centre in Bray and the West End Gallery in Mallow, Co. Cork.

David Stephenson is a fine art photographer and filmmaker from Dublin. His work has been exhibited at The Hunt Museum, Limerick; RHA Gallery; Municipal Gallery, dlr Lexicon; National Portrait Gallery, London; a group exhibition of works from Local Authorities’ collections (30 Years, Artists, Places); and the solo show Slant at The Gallery of Photography Dublin. He has been shortlisted for this year’s Zurich Portrait Prize and selected for the Ballinglen Museum’s first biennial open exhibition as well as the Royal Ulster Academy open exhibition. Stephenson’s award-winning short film ‘Raymond’ is an elegiac portrait of an elderly man’s recollections of life on the Irish border. His current work-in-progress, Main Street Bray, is a film/photographic project.

Picture credit: ‘/after’, coloured pencil, pencil, and pen on paper, by Emily McGardle.