I'm excited to announce that this summer I'm piloting a small festival of contemporary poetry and the verbal arts in Dublin: re:verb is a platform showcasing poetry and verbal art that predominantly strays from the mainstream, and aims to expand the potential of live literature. Its purpose is to offer an outlet and an encouragement for new forms and approaches to the making and presentation of contemporary poetry and literature that privilege liveness and vibrancy. And as a small poetry/verbal arts festival, re:verb aims to operate on a model that relies on a communal, artist- and audience-centred stake in its workings. The dates of this year's edition are 5-6 June 2026 . At-a-glance programme information above, with links to tickets, as well as artist details, below. The idea is that, if all goes well and there's demonstrable appetite for it from every direction, re:verb will potentially become an annual fixture. re:verb is, in its current form at least, a zero-bu...
The second issue of gorse , a wonderful print journal of literature edited in Dublin by Susan Tomaselli, was published last week and includes a new long poem of mine. gorse publishes high quality work in the form of essays, fiction, interviews, poetry, variations of these and much else. It's distinguished by top production values with beautiful cover art, extended knowledge of and interest in a diversity of writing traditions and movements, an experimentalist thrust, cosmopolitanism and wit combined with seriousness of attention, and an interrogative outlook - a confluence of dimensions generally lacking from other Ireland-based journals. Issue 2 also includes work by Claire-Louise Bennett, Matthew Jakubowski, Rob Doyle, Colm O'Shea, SJ Fowler, Dylan Brennan and Lies Van Gasse among others. My poem has title 'Civilisation's Golden Dawn: A Slide Show' and is composed out of specifically-written captions to old family photos of trips to Greece, with fragmen...
After a long gestation period, I'm very pleased to share that issues 12 and 13 of gorse are now available. gorse No. 12 is predominantly concerned with Language and Translation, and I'm delighted to be including in it poetry from Ray Malone , Silvina Ocampo in translation by Caitlin Newby , Jérémie C. Wenger , Sujatha Menon , Martin Jackson , and Ghazal Mosadeq . Some of these poets have been waiting a long time for the release of the issue featuring their work, and I thank them particularly for their patience. Issue 13 is themed around the notion(s) of Taboo, with poetry contributions from Michael Chang , Viviana Fiorentino , Will Fleming , Özgecan Kesici-Ayoubi , and Lianne O'Hara . The issue also features prose contributions from several poets. These latest issues are currently available to order from selected bookshops ; they will also be available to purchase directly from the gorse shop soon, pending a website update. As ever, I'm grateful to all the above...
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