I’m delighted to be reading at Istanbul Book Fair this week under the auspices of the Turkish Author’s Association. I’ll be reading this Friday with fellow poets Entela Kasi, Lucilla Trapazzo and Teresa Cadete. I’ll also be taking part in a discussion on Poetry and Technolgy. I’m very much looking forward to this trip and very grateful to Muhsine Arda and Edebiyatçılar Derneği, the Turkish Authors Association.
I’m delighted to be heading to Clonakilty for this year’s Culture Night. I’ll be appearing as part of SNAG NOTES at the wonderful Gallery Asna. This evening of poetry and jazz, kicking off at 8.30pm, will showcase original works by musicians George Hart, Nuclear Fuchsia and Dónal O’Sullivan as well as poetry by myself, Ailbhe Ní Ghearbhuigh, Mary Noonan and Stephen Beechinor.
I’m delighted to be reading at Waterstones Bookshop in my hometown this coming Sunday. Waterstones, especially the redoubtable John Breen, have been such great supporters of literature in Cork City over many years now, so it’s a delight to participate in their Sunday reading series. I’m delighted, too, to be reading alongside Kimberly Reyes, an international poet and writer with strong Cork connections, for whose powerful new collection, Vanishing Point, the event serves as a launch of sorts…
I’m delighted to be reading at the opening night of European Poetry Festival, at Lambeth’s Iklectik Artlab. This looks to be a wonderful event in a wonderful venue- a fitting beginning to London’s annual celebration of European verse. I’ll be reading a new collaborative work, created with Sean Borodale. My thanks to organiser supreme Steven Fowler and to Versopolis, under whose auspices this event is taking place.
It was a pleasure and privilege, last month, to read at Littfest in Umeā, in northern Sweden. My heartfelt thanks go not only to Erik, Patrik and all the Littfest team, but also to Versoplolis, that wonderful Europran poetry platform, under whose auspices by event was organised. Below is the contents of a questionnaire s I answered at the festival’s conclusion..
What makes Littfest special?
Littfest is unique because it manages to be somehow both huge and intimate. It is a vast event, with a plethora of readings, conversations, after-parties and performances; and the audiences are uniformly large and attentive. At the same time, however, it is a most welcoming and convivial affair, with the organisers making each participant feel welcome and looked-after, while creating a friendly, almost family vibe.
Most memorable event, thought, or encounter at the festival?
There were so many memorable moments packed into a few days: talking philosophy in the exquisite Book Café Pilgatan, sharing a cheese plate with the cartoonist Joe Casso, wandering by the frozen river. If I were forced to choose a single moment, however, it would be the talk and reading by the Russian poet and writer Maria Stepanova. This was a moment, given the war raging in the east, that seemed to possess a special urgency, that brought the political and poetical most brutally together
Did you learn something new?
What I came to appreciate, more than anything else, is the dignity, fortitude and creativity of the indigenous Saami people, whose ancestral lands occupy that part of Sweden, while also stretching into Finland and Norway. It was both humbling and inspirational to encounter the work of the poet Niillas Holmberg, the rappers SlinCraze and Áilu Valle, and the spectacular closing soiree which featured an ensemble of Saami poets and musicians.
What did you bring to the festival line-up?
I would like to think that, along with my Versopolis colleague Liz Berry, I brought a few honest verses that connected, on some level, with the audiences that came to see us.
What is on your mind as you are returning home?
My mind is awash with images of Sweden, of snow, of the festival, of the new friends I made in Umea and older ones I was lucky enough to meet there once again.
What does Versopolis mean to you?
In a word: community. It was a treat to connect with the Versopolis poets and organisers present in Umea. But it’s also great to feel oneself connected, as it were, to such a burgeoning network of poets across the continent. It’s a special project and one with which it’s an honour to be involved.
I’ve been dipping into Second Voyages: Writers on poems by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin. This exquisite book features contributions by no less than 50 scribes, each discussing a favourite Ní Chuilleanáin poem.
It’s a worthy celebration of one of our nations’ presiding poetic spirits and was fittingly presented to her lasy year on the occasion of her 80th birthday.
It’s a privilege to have a piece of my own included, one in which I wander down the paths of ‘Following’, that endlessly fascinating, inexhaustibly mysterious poem of loss and seeming rediscovery.
I’m delighted to be spending a week here in beautiful Novi Sad, on a residency as part of Literary Machine’s annual festival. The festival, which this year is on the theme of ‘I, is another’, is most ably organised by Stevan Bradic and his collaborators, and features poetry, music, discussion and debate. My thanks, too, are due to all Versopolis under whose auspices the residency was arranged. It has been an honour to spend a week in this beautiful environment, writing and thinking, listening and participating. It’s an even greater honour, of course, to have my poetry translated by Stevan into Serbian.
The Hapsburg architecture of Novi Sad.
A reading at the wonderful Zenit Bookshop.
‘Chaos Poetry’ at the equally wonderful Boulevar Books
Fellow guest poets Mariagiorgia Ulbar, Elias Herschel and Katharina Wenty.
I’m delighted to have my poem ‘Dusk and Tomatoes’ published in Issue 14 of Banshee a Literary Journal. It’s an honour to be represented beside such poets as Ailbhe Darcy, Grace Wilentz, Adam Wyets, Tim Mac Gabhann and Sreee Sen. The issue, like all editions of this fine publication. is rich in essays, short stories and flash fiction, featuring a full novella, no less, from the enigmatic and inimitable Lucy Sweeney Byrne.
My thanks go to Eimear, Laura and all the Banshee team, with especial gratitude to poetry editor Jessica Traynor.
I’m delighted to be heading west this weekend in order to read and a give a workshop at the famous Féile Bheag Filíochta in beautiful Ballyferriter. This is surely the biggest and best ‘little festival’ in the country, its programme being a treasure trove each year of friendship, words and music. Chuaigh mé ann don chéad uair i 2008, rud atá dochreidte dom, agus táim ag tnúth go mór leis arís i mbliana!
I’m delighted to be reading at the Cork’s Glucksman Gallery at 1pm tomorrow May 2nd as part of Poetry Day Ireland. This is one of my favourite buildings in Cork City so it’s a treat to present my work there.
I’m equally delighted that one my poems will feature in a publication to mark the The Parted Veil, a superb exhibition that explores commemoration through the medium of photography. My thanks to Dr. Adam Hanna for including me along with fellow poets Ailbhe Darcy, Vona Groarke, Doireann Ní Ghríofa and Leanne O’Sullivan
Cáit Fahey, Niamh, liberty house, 2015, C-print
Billy Ramsell | Poet 