By Pat Boran

Local Wonders

The publication of Local Wonders is a major event in the Irish poetry calendar, an anthology of new poems from all over the island of Ireland – and beyond – celebrating a rediscovery of precious places and things, and renewing our focus on what we love and sustains us in these uncertain times.

Description

LOCAL WONDERS: POEMS OF OUR IMMEDIATE SURROUNDS

What do we love? What sustains or inspires us, consoles or simply distracts us when our troubles might otherwise threaten to overwhelm? The past 18 months or so have made many of us question so much about our lives.

Somehow, too, they have also shown us how to see again, have lead us both to tiny discoveries and monumental realisations, often almost right there on our doorsteps.

Far from a pandemic anthology, LOCAL WONDERS is a gathering of mostly celebratory poems, written by poets from all over the island of Ireland, and farther afield, since early 2020 when the world was so utterly changed. It is an invitation to see and name and sing the praises of what is nourishing and of value to us now — not to turn away from the things that haunt and trouble us, but to see beyond into the better world that poetry makes visible.

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

CHRIS AGEE * JAMES ANTHONY * IVY BANNISTER * STEPHEN BEECHINOR * LINDSEY BELLOSA * TRISH BENNETT * CLÍODHNA BHREATNACH * DENISE BLAKE * DERMOT BOLGER * FIÓNA BOLGER * PAT BORAN * CAROLINE BRACKEN * ELLEN BRICKLEY * CAT BROGAN * PADDY BUSHE * DAVID BUTLER * DARAGH BYRNE * SARAH BYRNE * ALVY CARRAGHER * PAUL CASEY * JANE CLARKE * SUSAN CONNOLLY * POLINA COSGRAVE * CATHERINE ANN CULLEN * MARTINA DALTON * PHILIP DAVISON * CELIA DE FRÉINE * EILÍN DE PAOR * PATRICK DEELEY * MICHELLE DENNEHY * MOYRA DONALDSON * DARREN DONOHUE * MICHAEL DOOLEY * MARGUERITE DOYLE * GER DUFFY * TIM DWYER * LORETTA FAHY * CIAN FERRITER * AGNIESZKA FILIPEK * JAMES FINNEGAN * MARIA FITZGERALD * KIT FRYATT * CATHERINE GANDER * ELAINE GASTON * MATTHEW GEDEN * ANGELA GRAHAM * KEVIN GRAHAM * MARK GRANIER * CLAIRE HENNESSY * KEVIN HIGGINS * CATHERINE HIGGINS-MOORE * MARY-JANE HOLMES * LIZ HOUCHIN * NITHY KASA * BEN KEATINGE * PATRICK KEHOE * JOHN KELLY * ÖZGECAN KESICI * CLAIRE-LISE KIEFFER * BRIAN KIRK * ZOSIA KUCZYNSKA * EITHNE LANNON * NOELLE LYNSKEY * CATHERINE PHIL MacCARTHY * JIM MAGUIRE * KATIE MARTIN * WINIFRED McNULTY * JAKI McCARRICK * DEIRDRE McMAHON * MEL McMAHON * MARIA McMANUS * JOHN MEE * PAULA MEEHAN * VIKA MELKOVSKA * KELLY MICHELS * BILLY MILLS * GERALDINE MITCHELL * GERRY MURPHY * KIERAN FIONN MURPHY * TIM MURPHY * DENISE NAGLE * CHANDRIKA NARAYANAN-MOHAN * DAVID NASH * CEAITÍ NÍ BHEILDÚIN * ÁINE NÍ GHLINN * JEAN O’BRIEN * HUGH O’DONNELL * MARY O’DONNELL * SIMON Ó FAOLÁIN * JAMIE O’HALLORAN * LANI O’HANLON * EUGENE O’HARE * MAEVE O’LYNN * NESSA O’MAHONY * ART Ó SÚILLEABHÁIN * MAIRÉAD O’SULLIVAN * ANDREAS PARGGER * SAAKSHI PATEL * KEITH PAYNE * KATE QUIGLEY * RUTH QUINLAN * CLIFTON REDMOND * NELL REGAN * MOYA RODDY * MARK ROPER * GABRIEL ROSENSTOCK * JOHN SAUNDERS * COLM SCULLY * SREE SEN * JOHN W. SEXTON * GERARD SMYTH * KERRI SONNENBERG * LEAH TAYLOR * ROSAMUND TAYLOR * BETTY THOMPSON * RÓISÍN TIERNEY * EOGHAN TOTTEN * ERIKO TSUGAWA-MADDEN * NIAMH TWOMEY * EAMONN WALL * CHRISTIAN WETHERED * JOSEPH WOODS * ADAM WYETH * ENDA WYLEY

LOCAL WONDERS features on RTÉ Culture here

17 November 2021
180 pp approx
140 x 216 mm

ISBN 978 1 910251 88 1 (PB) €14.50
ISBN 978 1 910251 89 8 (HB) €25

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About The Author

Author

PAT BORAN is an Irish poet, editor and film maker. He was born in 1963 in Portlaoise, in the Irish midlands, and has long since lived in Dublin. One of the best known Irish poets of his generation, he was Writer-in-Residence with Dublin City Libraries, Dublin City University and the Western Education and Library Board in Fermanagh. He is the author of more than a dozen books of poetry and prose, most recently Then Again (Dedalus Press, 2019) and Waveforms: Bull Island Haiku (Orange Crate Books, 2016) with photographs by the author. The Statues of Emo Court (2021), Building the Ark (2022) and On a wave of Light (2022) are single-poem volumes, with photographs by the author. A Man Is Only As Good: A Pocket Selected Poems was published in 2017 by Orange Crate Books. Editions of his poetry have been published in Italian, Hungarian, Macedonian and Portuguese, with further works in progress. Pat Boran's non-fiction includes the popular writers' handbook The Portable Creative Writing Workshop (various editions) and A Short History of Dublin (Mercier Press). His humorous memoir The Invisible Prison: Scenes from an Irish Childhood, was published by Dedalus Press in 2009 and published in Italian as Un'Infanzia Irlandese in 2019 by Edizioni Kolibris. A former editor of Poetry Ireland Review and a former presenter of The Poetry Programme and The Enchanted Way on RTÉ Radio 1, Pat Boran has edited numerous anthologies of Irish poetry, among them Wingspan: A Dedalus Sampler (2006), Flowing, Still: Irish Poets on Irish Poetry (2009), The Bee-Loud Glade (2009), Shine On: Irish writers supporting those affected by mental ill health (2011), the 2014 Dublin One City, One Book choice If Ever You Go: A Map of Dublin in Poetry and Song (with co-editor Gerard Smyth) and, with co-editor Eugene O'Connell, The Deep Heart's Core: Irish Poets Revisit a Touchstone Poem (2017). During lockdown in Spring 2020 he edited the popular anthology, The Word Ark: A Pocket Book of Animal Poems, illustrated by Sicilian artist Gaetano Tranchino. Since 2020 he has made more than a dozen short poetry films which have shown at film and literary festivals all over the world. Pat Boran’s distinctions include The Patrick Kavanagh Award and the US-based Lawrence O'Shaughnessy Poetry Award. He is a member of Aosdána, the Irish affiliation of creative artists. (See also www.patboran.com)