Muldoon's Picnic (November)

Nick Flynn has received fellowships and awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, PEN, and the Library of Congress, among other organisations. Some of his poems, essays, and non-fiction have appeared in The New Yorker, the Paris Review, and NPR's "This American Life." He is currently a professor on the creative writing faculty at the University of Houston, where he is in residence each spring. In 2015 he published his ninth book, My Feelings (Graywolf), a collection of poems. His work has been translated into fifteen languages.

Photo credit: Jessica Crute

Bassist Rene Hart has performed at the North Sea Jazz Festival and the Montreal Jazz Festival, and with musical artists including David Amram, Julian Priester, Bill McHenry, Don Braden, Dakota Staton, Myra Melford, Will Bernard, Sasha Dobson, James Hunter, Branford Marsalis, Pete Seeger, Anat Fort, Robert Pinksy, Oscar Noriega, Steven Bernstein, Eyvind Kang, Wayne Horvitz, Janis Ian, Mark Ronson, Paquito D’Rivera, and Butch Morris. Television appearances include The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Night with Conan O’Brien. Hart is a founding member of Honey Ear Trio, whose recording Steampunk Serenade was hailed as “one of the year’s most impressive debuts” (Time Out NY). He lives in Brooklyn, New York. 

Erica Jong is an American author and poet, known particularly for her 1973 novel, Fear of Flying, which has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide.

Photo credit: Christian Als

Musician and writer Cáit O’Riordan was a founder member of London-Irish punk band The Pogues, going on to play and sing on albums including the classic Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash (one of Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time). She moved to Dublin in 1989 and has since played bass for many acclaimed Irish acts including The Radiators from Space, Hothouse Flowers, Mundy, Jerry Fish, and Gavin Friday. As well as her musical work, in 2013 Cáit graduated from University College Dublin with a Master’s degree in Psychological Science. When not Rogue-ing at Muldoon’s Picnic, Cáit plays bass with Celtic-punk superstars The Mahones.

Photo credit: John Huntington

Phil Robson is a multi-award-winning, internationally-acclaimed guitarist, composer and bandleader. Originally from the UK, he relocated to NYC at the end of 2015 and is rapidly becoming one of the major figures on the music scene. He's worked with many of the greats, including David Liebman, Charles Earland, Steve Lacy, Maceo Parker, Barbra Streisand and BBC big band, and has also led his own bands featuring US stars such as Mark Turner, Billy Hart, Donny McCaslin, James Genus, Adam Nussbaum and many more. He and partner Christine Tobin have co-led the seminal UK band Partisans for more than 20 years.

Photo credit: Anthony Statham

Simi Stone is a violinist, guitarist, pianist, composer, and singer. Born and raised in Woodstock, the magic of the mountains is in her blood. She has performed and toured with Simone Felice, Connor Oberst, Dan Zanes, Elizabeth Mitchell, Natalie Merchant, Amy Helm, and Duke and the King.

Christine Tobin is an Irish vocalist, songwriter, and composer. She was an integral part of the London jazz scene before relocating to New York last year. Renowned for her unique rich voice and original compositional style, she has eleven highly acclaimed CDs under her own name and four major awards under her belt. In a five-star review of PELT, Christine’s new CD of settings of poems and lyrics by poet Paul Muldoon, BBC Music Magazine calls the album "a masterclass in songcraft," and The Guardian described her deeply expressive sound as "Tobin’s 24 carat voice." Awards include the 2012 British Composer Award for Sailing to Byzantium, her settings of WB Yeats' poems; the 2013 Herald Angel Award at the Edinburgh Festival for her concert A Thousand Kisses Deep; and 2014 Jazz Vocalist of the Year at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards. Christine is also a regular guest presenter on BBC Radio 3’s "Jazz Library" program.

Photo credit: Ian Anderson

Kevin Young’s new non-fiction book, Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News, will be published on November 14, 2017. He is the author of eleven books of poetry and, on November 1, 2017, will become poetry editor of The New Yorker.

Philip Marshall is part of the trio Shaker Flynn with bandmates Nick Flynn and Simi Stone.