Guests> (103) Jun/Jul 2024

June and July

10th June

for the Cork Harbour Festival

Luisa Castro with Keith Payne and Katrina Naomi
(via Zoom) (in-person) (in-person)

You can listen to Luisa and Keith reading here.

Luisa Castro is the author of nine collections of poetry and six novels. She has been awarded the King Juan Carlos Prize, The Hiperion Prize and the Herralde Prize among others. She was Director of the Cervantes Institute in Naples (2012-2017), Bordeaux (2017-2022), and is currently Director of the Cervantes Institute in Dublin (2022-present). She is a regular contributor to the Spanish El País newspaper and celebrated as one of the most important voices in contemporary Galician poetry.

First published to immediate and critical acclaim in 1988, Castro’s Baleas e Baleas (Whales and Whales), is considered one of the most pivotal collections in contemporary Galician poetry. It was reissued in 1996 in a bilingual Galician-Castilian version by Hiperión, and was recovered once more in Castro’s Collected Poetry, also by Hiperión, in 2004. A 30th anniversary edition, re-edited by poet and critic Ismael Ramos, appeared with Galaxia in 2018.

“In the last 30 years, whenever there has been an aesthetic renewal or a shift in the direction of Galician poetry, ‘Whales and Whales’ has been there,” – Ismael Ramos, poet, editor and coordinator of new projects at Galaxia publishing.

Keith Payne is the author of nine collections of poetry in translation and original poetry, most recently Building the Boat, published in 2023 as part of his Eco-Poet in Residency at Cork City Library and featured on BBC Radio 4’s The Essay. He co-edited A Different Eden: Ecopoetry from Ireland and Galicia (Dedalus Press, 2021), was Red Line Book Festival Poet in Residence (2021), John Broderick Writer in Residence (2021-22) and Cork City Library Eco Poet in Residence (2023). He curates the Aodh Ruadh Ó Domhnaill Poetry Exchange between Ireland and Galicia and was awarded an Artist in the Community Scheme from Create in 2022 and an Art’s Council Literature Bursary the same year. He shares his time between Ireland and Galicia. Whales and Whales, from the Galician of Luisa Castro, is published by Skein Press.

You can listen to Katrina’s reading here.

Katrina Naomi is an award-winning poet, performer, mentor and poetry judge. Her poetry collections have won an Authors’ Foundation Award and Saboteur Award, and she is a recipient of the Keats-Shelley Prize. Her fourth collection, Battery Rocks, is due in July 2024. Katrina’s poetry has appeared on Poems on the Underground, BBC Radio 4’s Front Row and Poetry Please, and in The TLS, The Poetry Review and Poetry Ireland Review. Katrina holds a PhD in creative writing from Goldsmiths and is chair of the UK’s Society of Authors’ Poetry & Spoken Word committee. Katrina lives in Penzance, Cornwall.

Battery Rocks is a meditation on nature, risk, swimming and the sea; the collection includes the poem ‘in the kelp forest’, which recently won the prestigious Keats-Shelley Prize for Poetry.

“In this, my fourth full poetry collection, I return to a Cornish swimming spot – Battery Rocks in Penzance – every day for a year. On each swim, I find something fresh and invigorating, whether this is an encounter with a bull seal or a jellyfish, an insight into the conflict in Palestine or the scourge of second homes, or a realisation about myself. Battery Rocks examines issues of fear, strength and vulnerability; I write in response to a violent sexual assault and other experienced attacks. In the collection, I question how I can feel safer alone, in a raging sea in winter, in nothing but a swimming costume, than on dry land. I also approach the climate emergency from aslant, offering several new takes on one of the most pressing concerns of our times.”

‘With this powerful new collection Katrina Naomi becomes one of the foremost voices of her generation.’ – Penelope Shuttle

You can watch a video of the event here

Hybrid Ó Bhéal Session

This event will be both in-person, hosted in the Hayloft bar, upstairs in Long Valley, Winthrop St Cork, as well as on Zoom (which is limited to 100 people). Participation in the open-mic session and five word challenge is open to both in-person and virtual attendees. The session will be live-streamed at obheal.ie/live and via Ó Bhéal’s Vimeo, Facebook and YouTube channels. Note to Participants: Our hybrid events are recorded and remain viewable on video via these same channels.

We are no longer posting the zoom link via our social media channels. Upon written request to info@obheal.ie with a sentence outlining your reason for participation, a link to join the session will be emailed to you on the evening of the event, which is expected to run for between 2-3 hours.

The evening will feature four parts:

7-7.45pm: Poetry-Films (random play from Ó Bhéal’s Poetry-Film comp archives – NOT STREAMED);
8.30pm: Five Word Challenge (max 30 – after the allotted 15 minutes writing time);
9.30pm: Featured Guest Poets (20 minutes each);
10:20pm: Open-Mic Session for original poetry (max 30).

(Entering a Zoom meeting is all explained here >>>. This link provides you with a step-by-step guide and YouTube tutorial if necessary. You should check this out if you’re unfamiliar with the Zoom platform – it also shows you where to download the zoom client/app for your computer/phone. Please Make sure to know where the chat box is and how to mute yourself to reduce background sound.)

8th July

Victoria Adukwei Bulley and Joseph Horgan
(via Zoom) (in-person)

You can listen to Victoria’s reading here.

Victoria Adukwei Bulley is a poet, writer, and artist whose work has appeared widely in publications including the London Review of Books, LitHub and The Atlantic. She is the winner of an Eric Gregory Award, and her critically acclaimed debut poetry book, QUIET, won the Folio Prize for Poetry, the John Pollard International Poetry Prize, and was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize. QUIET is published by Faber & Faber in the UK and in North America by Alfred A. Knopf.

You can listen to Joseph’s reading here.

Joseph Horgan was born in Birmingham of Irish immigrant parents and has lived back in Co Cork since 1999. He is a poet, author, journalist and reviewer and has worked as a nurse for over thirty years. The author of seven previous books amongst his credits are The Patrick Kavanagh Award, twice being awarded an Arts Council Bursary, his second book being serialised on RTE Radio One and his fourth book being a Poetry Society Recommended Read.

He has also been shortlisted for The Hennessy Award and been nominated for the Ted Hughes Award. His work has been anthologised and published throughout Ireland, Europe and the USA. He is a columnist for The Irish Post and his most recent collection is In Praise of Urban Living (Salmon Poetry, 2024).