Seven Towers Lunchtime Readings

Karl Parkinson and I are the featured poets in November's edition of the Seven Towers lunchtime reading series, which takes place on the first Wednesday of each month at the Twisted Pepper café (54 Middle Abbey St, Dublin 1). Wednesday 2 November 2011, 1.15pm, free admission.

London Student newspaper

London Student, 'Europe's largest independent student newspaper', has published a feature on Wurm im Apfel, where Kit Fryatt talks about Wurm's origins as a reading series and small independent press, about its publications and its plans - as well as the state of non-mainstream poetry in Ireland. "Yes, there is more to Irish poetry than Heaney and bogs and grandmothers' nails," the feature's author comments.

It also includes a short write-up on Spitting Out the Mother Tongue, a sort of first mini-review, in which it is described as "a fantastic book of poetry, with poems about Danielle Steel and Mötley Crüe..." Kit then briefly discusses the collection. 

London Student is published fortnightly and is available free on all college campuses of the University of London.

writing 3.0 festival (2011)

For this year's Writing 3.0 festival I will again be hosting an event with readings by guest poets followed by an open-mic session. The aim of the event is to showcase poetry written wide of the mainstream and to celebrate the work of new writers by inviting a participant in the previous year's open-mic session to feature. The featured poets this year are Catherine Walsh and Sarah Maria Griffin. 

Catherine Walsh is the author of eight books, most recently Optic Verve: A Commentary (Shearsman, 2009), and her work has been included in a number of anthologies. She also co-runs the small press hardPressed Poetry. Sarah Maria Griffin's first collection Follies was published by Lapwing earlier this year. In April she represented contemporary performance poetry from Ireland in New York City. 

The venue is Gibney's Pub in Malahide, and the date is Thursday 20 October. We start at 7.30pm and attendance is free (no pre-booking required) with registration for reading in the open-mic from 7pm - please note that performance places are limited. 

Full festival programme and booking information for all events on the festival website.

It's a Wrap: UpStart poster giveaway party

To mark the close of the poster project and to raise funds for future projects, UpStart - the group that put art and poetry on the streets of Dublin during the Irish General Election campaign of February 2011 - is throwing a poster giveaway party on Friday 14 October at Block T, Smithfield, Dublin 7.

It'll feature bands, DJs, performances, speakers, screenings and a poster exhibition. And everyone attending will receive a wrapped poster - their own piece of UpStart history to keep.

Somewhere among it all I'll be reading from new work.

The entrance fee is 7 Euro (though it's free for contributors to the original project) and like all UpStart events it's BYOB. 7pm till midnight.

launch of Spitting Out the Mother Tongue

Wurm Press invites you to the launch of Spitting Out the Mother Tongue 

poems by Christodoulos Makris

The Loft Bookshop 

54 Middle Abbey St 

(upstairs in the Twisted Pepper) 

Dublin 1 

Tuesday 11th October 2011, 8pm 

Guest Speaker: Harry Clifton, Ireland Professor of Poetry