About

Dodging The Rain has evolved into a poetry journal, having been founded and edited by MA graduates of NUI Galway and Uversity in 2016. It provides an internet platform that showcases poetry to the world. Galway, Ireland is its spiritual home.

Neil Slevin — Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder 

Neil Slevin MA, BSc is from Co. Leitrim, Ireland. His poetry has been published widely and he is passionate about writing and editing. Neil edited Sin’s entertainment section and culture column, Resonate. He teaches second-level English.

“I want poetry that feels – each poem to have its own personality and voice. Writing that experiments and challenges our preconceptions of poetry, that looks forward. Don’t pay tribute to poets past; hit me with concision, directness, ‘new.’

“I lean towards first-person poems with intense or unreliable narrators, third-person poems that are remarkably precise, and poetic experiments that will surprise and/or engage our readers in unexpected ways.

“See our 2018 and 2019 Best of the Net nominations for some of my favourites.”

Megan Sullivan — Associate Editor and Social Media Manager

Megan moved to Galway to do the MA in Literature and Publishing and liked the city so much that she decided to stay and brave further rainy winters. She has a BA in English, Media and Cultural Studies from Dún Laoghaire’s IADT. While at NUI Galway, Megan was part of the editorial and social media teams for ROPES and thoroughly enjoyed reading contributors’ work and discussing it with them.

Shauna Smullen — Social Media Assistant

Shauna Smullen is a Dublin native. She holds a Master’s degree in Creative Writing from UCD, where she also worked as editor of Creative Non-Fiction on the HCE Review. She is a writer of short stories, which she performs at open mic nights across Dublin. Shauna also has a background in publishing, having worked with The Lilliput Press in 2018. Most recently, she worked as sub-editor on Dr. Rachael Hegarty’s new anthology Making Sense of Finglas, which was released on Poetry Day 2020.

Áine Ni Mhaoileoin — Co-Founder

Áine is a Galway-based writer of fiction and drama. After completing an MA in Writing at NUI Galway, she co-founded Dodging The Rain. An avid reader and writer, she is working, slowly but surely, on a number of longer projects with a view to publication.

Dana Rabe — Co-Founder

Dana Rabe is young enough to admit her age and old enough to know better. She is a Nebraska native who has lost a good portion of her heart to Ireland, specifically Galway. Currently based in the Silicon Prairie, she is a writer of fiction and drama and a dabbler in other areas. A graduate of Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota with a double major in theatre and English and of Uversity’s Creative Process MA class of 2016, she has not yet been published anywhere but here.