To an Unknown Shore is a collection of last poems by Theodore Enslin, the prolific, American avant-garde poet, who died in 2011. On the back cover he’s quoted as saying ‘I like to be considered as a composer who happens to use words instead of notes.’ His experience shows not only in the way he Read More
Imagine the socio-political-economic texture of Scotland as an enormous loch. Writer, songwriter, and actor Gary Robertson has placed stepping stones on its sometimes placid, often roiling surface for his audience to skip across in his latest production. The play, raucous and gentle, threatening and comfortable, has the feel of an adult pantomime. Although Robertson touches Read More
Arthur Rimbaud, eminent French poet of the late 19th Century, precocious in his genius and revolutionary in his poetic considerations, was a defining figure of Symbolist and early Surrealist movements. This volume is a reissue of the masterful translation by John Ashbery, considered one of the greatest American poets of the 20th Century, having Read More
Randomer is Colm Keegan’s second collection of poetry; his first, Don’t Go There was released to critical acclaim in 2012. Shortlisted for the Hennessy New Irish Writer Award four times, he won the All Ireland Poetry Slam in 2010. Perhaps that’s not surprising as from a young age Keegan liked reading out loud. In interviews Read More
‘Dear Diary, go fuck yourself’ opens I Am Not Okay With This, author and artist Charles Forsman’s latest graphic novel, a line that made me laugh with its direct belligerence. An opening like this, coupled with the comic’s cartoon art style – reminiscent to me of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s work – lured me into expecting Read More
American poet Terrance Hayes’ latest poetry collection, American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin, is a series of sonnets that, as the back of the paperback declares, ‘traces the fault lines of race, gender and political oppression with a singular passion and wit.’ Indeed, this offering of 70 devastating sonnets both disarms and charms the reader. Read More
Hannah Sullivan’s first book of poems breathes, from the tumultous living of the opening poem through a steadier still-vibrant growth in the second, to the painful inspirations of the third. Having led an academic career on both sides of the Atlantic, she’s translated her keen observations of the minutia of existence into something moving and Read More
Ailbhe Darcy’s second collection is a literary force of nature fearlessly exploring themes of love and grief. Much like her debut collection, Imaginary Menagerie, which begins in Dublin and then stretches further afield, Darcy offers a dark telling of the world seen through her eyes. Similarly, in Insistence, an unsettling feeling of hopelessness and anxiety Read More
Nick Laird’s fourth book of poetry, Feel Free, is a cleverly arranged three-part collection exploring the two words of the title: what it is like to feel and the nature of being free, if indeed freedom exists at all. The poems cover a huge range, from metaphysical notions of justice and the meaning of existence, Read More