More Poetry Now Poets

In my enthusiasm for Tomas Venclova's Friday night reading in Dun Laoghaire I didn't mention the other poets who read. Here is a brief comment on each in order of reading

Sujata Bhatt was born in Ahmedabad, India, in 1956, and grew up in India and in the United States. She has published seven books of poetry, most recently Pure Lizard (Carcanet, 2008),
which was shortlisted for the Forward Prize. She lives in Bremen, Germany. She read, and writes, with the confident voice of someone who has seen the world through many eyes - native, outsider, traveller. You can hear her read at the Poetry Archive here.

Paddy Bushe was born in Dublin in 1948, and has lived in Co. Kerry since the early 1970s. He has published eleven books of poetry in English and Irish. He positions himself solidly in the traditional Irish tradition. He read extracts from his translation of Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire, some poems in Irish with his English translation and a poem to Cathal O Searcaigh, written as a result of a visit to Nepal where he spoke to and filmed some of the boys who featured in the controversial film Fairytale of Kathmandu.

Paul Batchelor was born in Northumberland in 1977 with a Scottish background. His debut collection, The Sinking Road (Bloodaxe) was published in 2008 and was shortlisted for the Jerwood Aldeburgh Prize and a Glen Dimplex Award. His poems and his reading were very impressive - good introduction, touches of humour, good audience awareness. He has included some translations from the Irish Buile Suibhne in his collection.

You can hear Paul reading six poems from his collection here. The poems are: 'Artemis', 'Keening' (for Barry MacSweeney), 'Secret Papers'. 'Honesty', 'Suibne in the Trees' (from the sequence 'Suibne Changed'), and 'Finding', a five-part poem written for his grandfather recalling the time during the 1930s when he worked in Kielder Forest in Northumberland.

Harry Clifton was born in Dublin in 1952 and has published six collections of poems. His most recent collection, Secular Eden: Paris Notebooks 1994-2004 (Wake Forest University Press), won the 2008 Irish Times Poetry Now Award. He teaches at the School of English, University College Dublin. His reading was very assured. His introduction and poems revealed a poet who has wandered through and lived in many parts of the world and engaged with each place on its own terms.

This afternoon three more poets reading at 4pm - Adam Foulds, Colette Bryce and Carol Ann Duffy.