On The Nail Reading Limerick

There's two ways to look at being a featured reader at an event which includes an open mic.

1. Most of those present are going to read themselves after you so they are likely to be very sympathetic and appreciative.

2. Most of those present are going to read themselves after you so they are likely to be hyper-critical, thinking they could do better.

At the On the Nail Reading in the Locke Bar, Limerick last evening it was definitely the first. Susan Millar DuMars read first. She read one short story, Lennon and McCartney, from her recently published collection Lights in the Distance. She did a fantastic job. It's a great story - the first line is a real attention grabber: He used to love my boobs. The story takes what could be a very hackneyed situation and makes it new. The wedding dresses, ghost white in a row among the graves is brilliant.

It was a tough act to follow. I followed all the instructions in the previous post, had my poems ready in a folder, timed, rehearsed, introductions ready. I read fourteen, each less than a page. They seemed to go down well, suitable audience reaction at various points. From comments afterwards they particularly liked the Auschwitz one, the one about my clothes carpeting the road back to where I was born, the one about being asked for directions in Florence and the male guilt one.

This was my first reading at this venue. A very comfortable place, very well organised by Dominick and his committee. A great selection of books for sale many published by Dominick and the gang at the Limerick Writers Centre. We sold a number of Boyne Berries also.

Met some familiar faces, Patricia who blogs here and who is working on a factual book and Ed O'Dwyer who is published in the most recent issue of Boyne Berries and was one of the Poetry Ireland Introductions last year.

Susan's book of short stories has just been published by Doire Press, and a very good job they've done. This is the second book I've seen from this new publisher, they also published Susan Lindsay's poetry collection Whispering the Secrets.

Photo: Susan and I at the reading.