Leeanne Quinn’s Some Lives
Circling the Subject: Leeanne Quinn’s second collection of poems, Some Lives, introduced by Aoife Lynch Leeanne Quinn’s second collection, is a rich and generous exploration of how poetry is made and how it makes meaning. Simultaneously intimate and outward-looking,
Poetry and/for Jam
Poetry publishing is an odd business at the best of times. But yesterday’s unusual exchange with a customer was of the kind that makes the more difficult parts worthwhile. In the late morning I received a call from what looked like
The Word Ark Postcards
FOLLOWING is our series of 5 postcards, issued in June 2020 to mark the publication of The Word Ark: A Pocket Book of Animal Poems, and included free with the first 100 copies of the book purchased directly from this
Isolation PoemCards
FOLLOWING is a selection of our Isolation PoemCards, chosen from the many submitted via the comments section on the Dedalus Press Facebook page, during March and April 2020. Thanks to all the poets, and the many hundreds of others who
The Arts as Anchor
Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan, one of the contributors to Writing Home: The ‘New Irish’ Poets, considers home, belonging and the writing life I had found an aerial shot of Dublin on Google, laid out like an intricate carpet, glowing under the rise
Making Our Own Days: Keith Payne on Frank O’Hara’s Lunch Poems
Poet and translator Keith Payne on a favourite book, Frank O’Hara’s Lunch Poems (City Lights Books. The Pocket Poets Series: Number 19) The idea is really simple. Every day on your lunch hour, if a lunch hour you take,
James J McAuley, an Interview
WE WERE DELIGHTED to be directed to an interview with the distinguished Irish poet and poetry teacher James J McAuley, conducted by Phyllis Silver in 1983 for a programme once again available on Spokane Public Radio. Jim, to his
Mutsuo Takahashi receives Seamus Heaney Award, Japan
We are delighted to report that Mutsuo Takahashi, whose On Two Shores: New and Selected Poems Dedalus published back in 2006 (and reissued only a few months ago in a handsome hardback edition) has been announced as the inaugural recipient
Roots, Rhythms & Revelations – Grace Wells on her Writing Practice
Passionate, courageous, incisive, inspiring – poet and fiction writer Grace Wells answers our occasional 7 Questions on Poetry, and gets to the heart of what really matters in the writing life. 1. How/when did you start to write? Did poems
Writing Home: The ‘New Irish’ Poets
NOW AVAILABLE Following an open call which drew hundreds of submissions, this major new anthology of ‘writing from Ireland’ reflects the changing nature of Irish society, with contributors hailing from all over the world. Selected by Chiamaka Enyi-Amadi and Pat
Luminous Things – A Favourite Book
Poet Enda Wyley writes about her favourite book of poems A Book of Luminous Things, Czeslaw Milosz’s anthology of international poetry, is one of my favourite books of poems. Inspiring in content, it succeeds as a collection of short poems
Fire And Snow And Carnevale by Macdara Woods
The late Macdara Woods recalls the genesis of his poem Fire And Snow And Carnevale, perhaps best known in its musical setting by Anúna, part of the original Riverdance project Steering clear of mystique and mystification I would have
My Daughter in Winter Costume by Mary O’Donoghue
US-based Irish poet Mary O’Donoghue on the background to her villanelle, My Daughter in Winter Costume, included in the 2017 Dedalus Press anthology The Deep Heart’s Core (eds. Pat Boran & Eugene O’Connell) I saw the sculpture ‘My Daughter
Metathesis by Enda Coyle-Greene
Enda Coyle-Greene sketches the background to her poem ‘Metathesis’, included in the anthology The Deep Heart’s Core: Irish Poets Revisit a Touchstone Poem (Dedalus Press, 2017) ‘Metathesis’ began with a word I either didn’t know or had forgotten. Words are
7 Questions on Poetry: Patrick Kehoe
Patrick Kehoe, poet and arts journalist, answers 7 Questions on Poetry. His most recent collections of poems are Places to Sleep (Salmon Poetry, 2018) and The Cask of Moonlight (Dedalus Press, 2014). Do you remember How, or When, or even
The Shipping Forecast
In this short essay, reproduced from The Deep Heart’s Core, poet JOHN O’DONNELL revisits his poem ‘The Shipping Forecast’, among those included in Sunlight: New and Selected Poems (May 2018). LIKE PROSPECTORS, poets are always anxious to know if what
Monsoon Diary: The Cover Story
JOSEPH WOODS on the story behind the cover of his new book of poems, Monsoon Diary For me, there’s a certain serendipity to the book cover of Monsoon Diary. Last December Pat Boran was in touch about the book and
7 Questions On Poetry: Elaine Cosgrove
Elaine Cosgrove, author of the much-admired debut Transmissions (Dedalus Press, 2017) takes part in our occasional series and answers 7 Questions on Poetry *** Do you remember the first poem you wrote or what prompted it? The first poem I
The Singing Without Ceasing
Catherine Ann Cullen on the songscape of a Dublin childhood This post takes its title from “Family Crest”, a tongue-in-cheek poem in my collection The Other Now (Dedalus, 2016) that uses as a central motif the coat of arms of
On a Turning Wing: Interview with Paddy Bushe
Paddy Bushe in email conversation with Pat Boran about his latest collection of poems, On a Turning Wing, winner of the 2017 Irish Times Poetry Now Award How important is place to your writing life, both in terms of subject
The Deep Heart’s Core
In our new anthology, The Deep Heart’s Core: Irish Poets Revisit a Touchstone Poem, some 100 poets accept the invitation to revisit a favourite, key or touchstone poem of their own, and offer a short commentary on same — as
Incorrigibly Spain
Keith Payne’s letter from Galicia, first published in The Level Crossing, introduces two of the new wave of Galician poets. World is crazier and more of it than we think, Incorrigibly plural … IT WAS AS IF MacNeice had predicted
Paula Meehan, reading and in conversation
To coincide with the launch of her new collection of poems, Geomantic, we link here to a recording of a wide-ranging conversation between the poet and UCD Adjunct Professor Jody Allen Randolph, in an event that took place at The
Obituary for Leland Bardwell
Leland Bardwell (1922 – 2016) “For such a big personality, her carbon footprint was small. Her radio played Lyric FM, quietly. And for years and years she drove an ancient Triumph Herald, the back seat of which was composed almost
Waveforms: essay and sample haiku by Pat Boran
In the Afterword to Waveforms, his recent collection of haiku and photographs, Pat Boran considers the attractions of keeping it small. Low-res PDF of essay and sample poems from the book, as featured in issue 1 of The Level Crossing.
AudioRoom: Jessica Trayor reads ‘Liffey Swim’
Jessica Traynor reads the title poem from her 2014 Dedalus Press debut collection, Liffey Swim, in the UCD Library Special Collections Reading Room. The poem also features in the 2014 Dedalus anthology, If Ever You Go: A Map of Dublin in
AudioRoom: Thomas Kinsella on ‘Marcus Aurelius’
Thomas Kinsella reads and introduces the poem ‘Marcus Aurelius’ from Marginal Economy (Peppercanister No. 24) recorded in Belmullet, Co. Mayo, June 2006, following the presentation to him of the Ted McNulty Award (from the Dedalus Press archive)
AudioRoom: Francis Harvey ABC Radio Documentary
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation on 03 Feb 2016 broadcast an edited version of Eamon Little’s very fine documentary on the life and work of the late Francis Harvey, featuring powerful readings by Frank (as he was generally known), dating from
AudioRoom: Doireann Ní Ghríofa reads ‘Frozen Food’
Doireann Ní Ghríofa reads ‘Frozen Food’ from Clasp, her debut English language collection of poems, published by Dedalus Press in 2015, in which the poet has “signalled that she is a poetic force to be reckoned with in the future”
AudioRoom: Macdara Woods reads 3 poems from Collected Poems
Macdara Woods reads three poems from his 2012 Collected Poems.