International Day of the Book. Alba Cid & Niamh O'Flannagain

Alba Cid (Ourense, 1989) is a Galician poet and researcher. Her first collection of poems, Atlas (Galaxia, 2019), was awarded the Miguel Hernández National Prize for Young Poetry 2020, granted by the Spanish Ministry of Culture. Her poems have been translated into Spanish, Greek, English and Portuguese, and have been included in anthologies, magazines and websites such as Asymptote, Enfermaria 6, Kenyon Review online, Oculta Lit, Poem-a-Day (the digital series of the Academy of American Poets) and The Offing. She collaborates on Radio Galega and in various magazines, and is part of the editorial team of Dorna. She photograps and illustrates occasionally. Alba Cid has also been part of interartistic projects related with intangible heritage such as Os danzantes dos Reis (aCentralFolque, 2018), with a text that accompanies photographs by Eutropio Rodríguez. Over the last years, she was in charge of the John Rutherford Center for Galician Studies (University of Oxford). 

Niamh O’Flannagain began dancing locally in Dublin with the Dunbar School of Dance before moving to the Goode School of Dance. Following this, she was accepted into Tring Park School for the Performing Arts where she completed her professional training. As a member of Encore Dance, Tring Park’s graduate company directed by Antony Dowson, Niamh completed two UK tours as well as appearing in a gala performance in Sweden with the Royal Swedish Ballet School. She performed works such as Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Elite Syncopations and Concerto, Cathy Marston’s Traces, and Drew McOnie’s Be Mine. Niamh completed three seasons with the National Young Ballet of Great Britain working alongside Mikah Smillie, Jonathan Payn, Drew McOnie, and Terry Wright. She appeared in numerous performances in venues including Sadler’s Wells, The Royal Albert Hall, and The Royal College of Music. Niamh joined Ballet Ireland in 2018 and performed in The Nutcracker, Bold Moves (2019) and Swan Lake.