Poetry Now Festival

Two magazines, Poetry (USA) and THE SHOp dropped in the letterbox yesterday. No time to do much more than browse them yet but of note is the fact that Irish poet Conor O'Callaghan, Dundalk native or one time resident there, has three poems in Poetry. (Nice to see a typo in his bio, it's reassuring to see this happens in more prestigious magazines as well as in Boyne Berries). Conor is also featured in the magazine podcast.

Interesting letters, comments and reviews in the same magazine but more on them some other time.

THE SHOp has a fine collection of poetry from some very well know names including poet Barbara Smith who was a fellow highly commended at the recent Caomhnu Cavan Festival. Also there I see two poems from Miriam Darlington who was at the 2007 Arvon Lumb Bank course I attended.

One of the tutors at that course, Colette Bryce, is reading and conducting a workshop at this week-end's Dun Laoghaire Poetry Now Festival. The reading is on Sunday. Another Poetry Now connection with the magazines is the fact that the only poet represented in both magazines, Irish poet Harry Clifton, will also be reading in Dun Laoghaire with Lithuanian poet Tomas Venclova on Friday 27th March 8.30pm

Last year Harry Clifton's collection, Secular Eden: Paris Notebooks 1994-2004 (Wake Forest University Press), won The Irish Times Poetry Now Award last year.

This year's Award shortlist is Colette Bryce Self-Portrait in the Dark (Picador Poetry); Ciaran Carson For All We Know (Gallery Books); Leontia Flynn Drives (Cape Poetry); Pearse Hutchinson At Least For A While (Gallery Books); Derek Mahon Life on Earth (Gallery Books).

Robert Pinsky gives the Poetry Now Keynote Address, The Fate of the Modern, tonight at 8.30 pm. From 1997 to 2000,Robert Pinksy served an unprecedented three terms as Poet Laureate of the United States. Pinsky will talk about how what he calls the “mighty tide” of modernism sets an example of poetic commitment and engagement to meet the challenges from a cynical age. I hope to be there.