Oisin Breen

A Scotsman Book of the Year writer and multi-award-nominated Irish poet, Oisín Breen is the author of the forthcoming The Kerygma (Salmon Poetry, 2026), the award-winning Lilies on the Deathbed of Étaín, and his well-received debut, Flowers, All Sorts, in Blossom, Figs, Berries, and Fruits Forgotten.

Widely celebrated for his sweeping, lyrical verse, his work has been published in 141 prestigious journals across 24 countries, including The Irish Times, Agenda, Acumen, Southword, Quadrant, North Dakota Quarterly, and The Tahoma Literary Review.

• Books: The Kerygma (2026), Lilies on the Deathbed of Étaín (2023), Flowers, All Sorts ... (2020).

• Nominations: Erbacce Commended Writer, 2x Erbacce Prize Finalist, 3x Best of the Net Nominee.

• Global Footprint: 288 poems featured worldwide, in 141 journals, across 24 countries.

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Twitter/X: @Breen

SELECT PRAISE:

For The Kerygma (2026)

• Amit Chaudhuri (Award-winning poet, novelist, and critic): "An extraordinary work, whose every line is an epic of creation."

• John Sexton (Celebrated Irish poet): “Oisín Breen has made a golden instrument that may very well stir the turgid porridge of contemporary verse into a new ambrosia."

For Lilies on the Deathbed of Étaín

• The Scotsman (Joyce McMillan): “A mighty meditation about death, desire and loss. An astonishing rolling surge of poetic energy and purpose... writes with a sensual vividness that takes the breath away. Like some great orchestral suite.”

• The Washington Independent Review of Books (Angela María Spring): “Breen is doing something innovative and important here. But his language...ah, his language. He has a gift for grabbing the reader by the throat and tossing us into the storm.”

• World Literature Today (Greg Brown): “Simply timeless... Breen's handling of the legend of Étaín is particularly suited for the contemporary world... These poems soothe and magnify us... It is the human condition that ties together these poems, that binds myth and science, and that sings it all into meaning.”

For Flowers, All Sorts in Blossom, Figs, Berries, and Fruits Forgotten

• Books Ireland: “A shotgun blast of a work.”

• Euphony: “For most debut poetry collections, an inescapable comparison to a semi-divine mythical poet would be a handicap. Breen, however, stands up to the challenge with aplomb.”

• World Literature Today: “A rewarding book to read and a model of contemporary poetic craft.”

FULL LIST OF JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS:

About Place, Acumen, Irish Times, La Piccioletta Barca, Books Ireland, North Dakota Quarterly, Northern Gravy, the Seattle Star, Modern Literature, Drunk Monkeys, Dreich, New English Review, Metaworker, Mono, Crow of Minerva, the Madrigal, Black Poppy, Permeable Barrier, Visual Verse, Meniscus Australia, In Parentheses, Kairos, Discretionary Love, Loch Raven Review, The Gyroscope Review, The Saltbush Review, the Banyon Review, Phantom Kangaroo, Griffel, Door is a Jar, The Ogham Stone, Gaia Literary Review, New Note, Cathexis, Wingless Dreamer, Yellerzine, ShabdAaweg, Stepaway, Roadrunner Review, Nevermore, The Belfast Review, Free State Review, Ground Up, Inklette, Euphony, Interim, Roi Fainéant, Thieving Magpie, MIROnline, Sibyl, New Critique, Reservoir Road, Decomp, Grub Street, WRFL, New Feathers Anthology, Oxford Middle East Review, Lucent Dreaming, Heartwood, Universe, Fiery Scribe, Zvona i Nari, October Hill, Red Ogre, Poetica, Drawn to the Light, Flooded Pine, AvantAppalachia, Stratford Quarterly, the Blue Nib, Kamena, Amphora Magazine, the Kleksograph, a New Ulster, Riverbed Review, the Unbound Brooklyn Journal, Mortal Mag, Genuine Gold, Postscript, the Ocotillo Review, the Bosphorus Review, Book of Matches, Blue Lake Review, Wise Owl, The Tahoma Literary Review, NōD, Crowvus, Expanded Field, Revolute, Aji, Griffel, Seventh Quarry, Camas, the Martello, Inverted Syntax, Active Muse, Sunday Mornings at the River, Soundings East, Abstract, Fresh Words, Carmina, Big Windows Review, the Candyman’s Trumpet, the Candyman's Trumpet Irish Edition, Aphor, the Literary Hatchet, the White Wall Review, Consilience, New Plains Review, the Elevation Review, Milk House, Pangyrus, Spectra, Rock & Sling, Die Leere Mitte, Southword, Delta Poetry Review, Pinhole Poetry, Thimble, the Exacting Clam, Nether, Lotus Eater, Agenda, Crest, Coffin Bell, Punt Volat, Amphibian, Twenty-Two-Twenty-Eight, Across the Margins, Crowstep, Poetry Wales, Coalition for Digital Narratives, the Mantelpiece, and the anthologies An Áitiúil, Autumn Noir, Penned Poetry for Parkinson's Research, and Spirit of Fire and Dust, An Áitiúil, The Black Earth Institute.

Forthcoming journal publications:

Quadrant, the Irish Times.