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Cork International Poetry Festival

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The Cork International Poetry Festival is kicking off today and will continue until Saturday night. It’s great to see so many Irish-language poets included on the programme – Caitríona Ní Chléirchín & Simon Ó Faoláin will read together in the City Library on Grand Parade on Friday at 4pm. Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill will read with David Harsent on Friday night at 10pm at Cork Arts Theatre. And I was chuffed to get the call-up to read alongside Leanne O’Sullivan on Saturday afternoon at 4pm at Cork Arts Theatre. This event is instead of a public interview with Marie Howe, whose book Magdalene I enjoyed reading late last year. So while it’s a pity we won’t get to hear from Marie Howe, I’m looking forward to sharing a stage with Leanne for the first time, a poet whose work I have admired since her first collection, Waiting for my Clothes.

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Launch of ‘Calling Cards’

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Wednesday 21st November at 7pm in Poetry Ireland, 11 Parnell Square East, Dublin 1.

The Gallery Press and Poetry Ireland present the lauch of Calling Cards, an anthology of ten younger Irish poets with translations into English.

In a novel partnership between Poetry Ireland and The Gallery Press Calling Cards introduces a new generation of Irish-language poets to a wider audience. This vibrant anthology includes prize-winning authors of several collections as well as three who have yet to publish a book. The translators include some of Ireland’s finest poets. Edited by Peter Fallon and Aifric Mac Aodha.

Poems in Irish
Máirtín Coilféir • Proinsias Mac a’ Bhaird • Aifric Mac Aodha • Marcus Mac Conghail • Caitríona Ní Chléirchín • Ailbhe Ní Ghearbhuigh • Doireann Ní Ghríofa • Caitlín Nic Íomhair • Simon Ó Faoláin • Stiofán Ó hIfearnáin

Translations
Colette Bryce • Ciaran Carson • Peter Fallon • Alan Gillis • Medbh McGuckian • Paul Muldoon • Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin • Peter Sirr • David Wheatley

Available to pre-order

Published: November 2018
RRP: €12.95 paperback / €18.95 hardback
ISBN PBK: 978 1 91133 755 3
ISBN HBK: 978 1 91133 756 0

All Things Considered @ UCC

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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.

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Upcoming events

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.