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Grand Tour: Resisen durch die junge Lyrik Europas

Great to receive a copy of this anthology during the week, edited by Federico Italiano and Jan Wagner, containing German translations of my work, alongside many, many poets whom I greatly admire. Among the Irish contingent are Ailbhe Darcy, Alan Gillis, Victoria Kennefick, Nick Laird, John McAuliffe, Sinéad Morrissey, Doireann Ní Ghríofa, Leanne O’Sullivan, Justin Quinn and David Wheatley. This book is divided into various ‘itineraries’, taking in Poland, Wales, Macedonia, Iceland Moldova, Portugal and Finland; another begins in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ireland, France, the Netherlands, Cyprus, Norway and Belarus; the third journey takes us from England to Israel, Denmark, Austria, Croatia, Luxembourg and Russia; the fourth leg includes poets from Chechnya, Bulgaria, Scotland, Georgia, Italy, Kosovo and Latvia; the fifth itinerary takes in Belgium, Malta, Lithuania, Andorra, Hungary, Turkey and Serbia; the sixth trip begins in Switzerland before taking us to Romania, Albania, Slovakia, Spain, Montenegro and Estonia; the seventh and final trek take us from Ukraine to Germany, Armenia, Greenland, Sweden, Northern Ireland and Slovenia. These are poignant -and vital – poetic journeys, given what the scenes that are emerging from Ukraine in recent days and weeks…

Many thanks to the editors and to Hans-Christian Oeser who translated my poems to German, and to the publisher Carl Hanser Verlag.

Reading in Waterstones, Cork on 16.3.22

For Seachtain na Gaeilge, I’ll be reading in Waterstones, Cork on Wednesday 16th March at 4pm. Really looking forward to reading with the novelist Thaddeus Ó Buachalla. With thanks to John Breen for organising the event!

New poem in the Irish Times

It was great to see a new poem of mine in the Irish Times on Saturday. I wrote it back in August as the situation in Afghanistan was rapidly changing and the Taliban were approaching Kabul. It’s called ‘Fothragadh’ which could be translated as ‘bathing’ or ‘immersion’, or ‘bustle’ or ‘flurry’. My thanks to Billy Ramsell for his wonderful translation. Here is the link

Reading at the EFACIS Conference 2021

Many thanks to Daniela Theinová, Justin Quinn and the rest of the organising committee of the EFACIS conference in Prague in September. Of course, like much else at the moment, it was all a bit virtual, sadly, but Prague still exists and remains high on my list of places to revisit.

Here is a link to the reading I did with Louis de Paor and Ailbhe Darcy.

Agus seo nasc chuig dreas cainte a dheineas le Dara Ó Cinnéide ar an Saol ó Dheas an lá céanna.

On learning – Kaleidoscope II

I was asked to write a piece about my impression of ‘Europe’ and I wrote about my Erasmus year in Rennes, minority languages, majority languages, and gorgeous French books. You can read it on Kaleidoscope II project page, alongside essays by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Doireann Ní Ghríofa and more besides.

My thanks to EFACIS (European Federation of Associations and Centres for Irish Studies), in particular, Hedwig Schwall and Anne Fogarty.

Podcasts

Ré an Phodchraolta – ‘Tis the Age of the Podcast, and I’m chuffed to have been involved, even tangentially, in two podcasts recently. As part of the Dingle Literary Festival the BAÉs of Beo ar Éigean asked me to set them a challenge for Seachtain na Gaeilge. The creative results can be heard here. Buíochas ó chroí Tobar Dhuibhne as a dtacaíocht.

I’m grateful, too, to Benjamin Collopy for his insights into my poem ‘Conriocht’ on his Words that Burn podcast. It’s a bit peculiar to have something I wrote analysed so intensely, but thankfully Benjamin is a perceptive and astute reader of poetry.

Crossways 2021 and the Poetry Programme

Crossways 2021, the Irish Scottish Cultural and Literary Festival, is online this year and there has been some stellar reading so far this weekend. A special mention to Winnie Brook Young, who travelled all over Ireland and Scotland during the restrictions to film the poets. Treise leat, a Winnie! Myself and Catrìona Lexy Chaimbeul are due to read tomorow 14th February at 2pm and we will be followed by Phillip Cummings and Pàdraig MacAoidh, Áine Uí Fhoghlú and Iain Mac a’ Phearsain, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill and Aonghas Dubh Mac Neacail, Biddy Jenkinson and Maoilios Caimbeul, and Alan Titley and David Kinloch.

Also tomorrow evening, the Poetry Programme on RTÉ Radio 1 will feature love poems for Valentine’s Day. Delighted that ‘Grasse Mattinée’ will be included, with its translation by Alan Gillis.