Atlantic Currents II is a companion to Atlantic Currents: Connecting Cork and Lowell (Loom Press, 2020), both books arising from the partnership between Cork Learning City and Lowell: City of Learning, affiliated with the UNESCO Learning Cities network. This collection of award-winning prose and poetry from a 2021 international writing competition includes work by students and alumni from University College Cork and the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. At its core, the concept of a learning city recognizes that understanding, inquiry, curiosity, and knowledge occur in many places and in many formats. In the first Atlantic Currents, we gave voice to people who lived in or who were from these two cities. In so doing, we promoted the idea that skills and insights, thoughtful observations, and creativity exist outside of traditional learning institutions-in classrooms without walls. In this collection we mined the knowledge and skills of students and alumni of two universities. This was a means to connect the threads of the two campuses and to build on the collaboration that has developed. In this volume, emerging and established writers speak of personal learning experiences and their impact, irrespective of whether they occurred in a traditional classroom or in unique and unusual circumstances. Both universities are critical to the vibrancy of their respective cities. We decided that one way to showcase what these institutions create was to publish the best writing from their former and current students.