Book launch

And the second launch …

Karen J McDonnell

… was a blast!

The Dublin launch for TIDAL was held on 16 October, along with that for Paul Perry’s Clockhammer.

John Walsh from Doire Press did the intros this time around. Much gratitude to Anne Tannam who launched TIDAL in Capital City: her speech was insightful and generous … just like the woman herself. I can’t speak highly enough of her support. She was so busy and yet found time to write a blurb for the book and to do the honours on the night. Míle buíochas, Anne! I changed the reading list somewhat, reading a couple of poems about my parents that I didn’t trust myself to read during the launch in Clare. And having surprised that crowd with the ballad that is a part of the final sequence ‘And What Else’, John asked me up at the end of the evening to do it again. I wasn’t ready for that!

It was nice to have a double launch. I was up first, then I could sit back and enjoy Paul’s work. We had a full house, in a great venue. It was my first time in the Teacher’s Club. The rooms are fantastic – of course, they’re in a Georgian building! – and the club bar was next door, which was handy for afterwards. Séamus, a pal, was in deep conversation with an older man in the bar as I was heading off. ‘Come here and hear this!’ It turns out that the building we were in had been owned by a well known music and singing teacher, early in the last century. People who had sung in the room we had been in included opera singer Margaret Burke Sheridan, soloist and oratorio singer John McCormack, and James Joyce. I’d sung in the same room as the man himself.

‘I’ll take that!’, I said to Séamus, as I headed off into the Dublin night. What an end to a great evening.

TIDAL is available in independent bookshops, and they will order it in. OR you can buy it directly from the publishers, Doire Press, by clicking here

I’ll be back in Capital City on 6 December – reading at the Irish Writers Centre’s Christmas get-together. There have been offers from a few festivals for next year. But first it’s Galway – the City of the Tribes – next week. You have been warned!

Project Management

Karen J McDonnell

It’s always there, the admin. I’ve managed to load up all the photos from my phone and now was seems to be an everlasting task of sorting them is going on. That includes research and poetry events/publicity photos. Never. Ending.

It has been an interesting few months in terms of where the work is going. The last of  the research trips to Dublin that were funded by the Arts Council of Ireland Agility Award took place in October. It coincided with the opening of a new exhibition at the Chester Beatty about early papyrii and texts. The First Fragments exhibition is still running and you can find more details here. The then head curator Kristine Rose-Beers took me on a tour, and then she and her colleagues welcomed me to their conservation room. Kristine has moved to a new position with Cambridge University. I’m so grateful to her for her hospitality at a busy time in the museum, and I wish her all the best with the new job. The conservation room visit ,in itself, has yielded a new poem!

I also revisited the Art of the Book gallery, which hosts a variety of treasures: old tablets and a stylus, Japanese and Chinese scrolls, early and mediaeval books, Durer prints, along with other 18th and 19th century prints, and many books. I have taken a LOT of photos as part of my research – purely to keep my memory working. There was time at the Silk Road Café – as always! – to take a break and make some immediate notes.  Probably a third of the poetry collection has been sketched out; between my notes, photos and the online lectures from the Chester Beatty I have definitely enough material to see me through.

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Last autumn also saw the publication of Vital Signs, Poems of Illness and Healing, edited by Martin Dyar, and published by Poetry Ireland. It is the first time a poem of mine has been anthologised without my having submitted it, and I was chuffed to bits – especially when I saw the company I was keeping!

It’s a wonderful volume, and would make a great gift.  There’s a fine selection of modern Irish poets and also poems from other countries and eras. Thanks to Martin for including my poem ‘My Grandfather Battles Death’, from my first collection This Little World.  I travelled up for the launch in Dublin at Books Upstairs, and took part in a featured reading from the anthology in February this year at the University of Limerick with poets Victoria Kennefick, Eoin Devereux, writer Donal Ryan, and Martin Dyar. It was a lovely event, ably hosted by Eoin and supported by Liz Kelly, the director of Poetry Ireland.

The new year started in an interesting way. But that’s another story!

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Editor, Martin Dyar, speaking at the launch of Vital Signs

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