I was delighted to be invited to speak at the conference ‘All Things Considered… Material Culture and Memory’ at University College Cork at the weekend. It was an interdisciplinary conference hosted by the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures which looked at interactions between memory and the material world. I spoke about Parnell’s Walking Stick and its previous custodians, among them Brinsley MacNamara, W.R. Rogers, and Conor Cruise O’Brien. I took the opportunity to read some poems inspired by objects by two of the most recents holders of the Stick, Séamus Heaney and Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill. My thanks to the organisers, Dr Chiara Giuliani and Dr Kate Hodgson, for the kind invitation. 

I’ll be talking about An File agus an Chathair (the Poet and the City) at Imbolc in Baile Mhúirne on 10 February, a day of talks as Gaeilge on wide-ranging and inspiring topics.

Really excited about the Cork International Poetry Festival – a highlight in the calendar in our house – and this year I’ll be reading with Ishion Hutchinson on Wednesday 14 February at 8.30pm. The programme begins with the launch of Leanne O’Sullivan’s new book  on the evening of Tuesday 13th Feb and wraps up on Saturday night with a reading by D.A Powell and Jane Yeh with an astounding amount of poems and poets in between. There is no other festival like it, certainly not in Ireland.

On 9 March I’ll be returning to Baile Mhúirne with poet Colm Breathnach and musician Méabh Ní Bheaglaoich for an evening of poems, yarns, tunes and song.

Really happy that The Coast Road is included in the longlist for the inaugural Warwick Prize for Women in Translation. You can read more about the Prize and the other works on the longlist here.