Summer 2018

The loneliness of the sasquatch goes to print this month, well on schedule for its launch by Dr Lucy Collins on 22 November in The Teachers Club, 18.30.

Poems accepted by Crannóg 49, and the Irish issue of The North, (eds Jane Clarke and Nessa O'Mahony); haiku accepted for the new haiku journal Seashores, and a haibun accepted for cattails (ed. Mike Montreuil).

I presented a paper about haibun as the new nature writing at the ASLE-UKI conference 'A Place at the Edge' in Kirkwall, Orkney, 4-8 September.

My interview and reading on 'Rhyme and Reason' with Helen Dwyer for Dublin South FM, recorded this month, will air at 7pm on Friday 5 October.

August

My poem 'The New Road' is to appear in a chapbook of poems placed and shortlisted in  the Redline Poetry Competition, and my haibun 'Wintering' has been accepted by Haibun Today. Slots for The Lost Library Book workshops are filling up well for the autumn – I'll be visiting lots of libraries in Fingal.

July

The Interpreter's House 68 has a review of First the Feathers by Dawn Gorman: 'This is a powerful collection by a poet whose clear, logical thinking maintains clean control over unusual, thought-provoking subjects. Read it, learn much.'

June

20 June - happy to hear this morning that I have a poem accepted for The Stony Thursday Book No. 16, edited by Nessa O'Mahony.

Really pleased to be reading on the fringe of West Cork Literary Festival, Monday 16th July at 4pm in Organico café, with Poetry Divas Kate Dempsey and Maeve O'Sullivan. I'm taking Martina Evans's workshop so it should be a great week.

May

On 31 May I was delighted to be part of the Wild Voices Writers’ Salon curated by the wonderful Annemarie Ní Churreáin. Nine poets and a harpist responding to the words of John Moriarty. It was great treat to read with Karen J. McDonnell, Victoria Kennefick, Alice Kinsella, Faye Boland, James Martyn Joyce, Nicholas McLachlan, Stephen Murphy and Liz Quirke, and harpist Eithne Walsh.

I'm very pleased to have a poem in the inaugural issue of the Smithereens Literary Magazine.

18 May – Playing with Poetry. A delightful neighbourhood evening of poetry and music with me, Catherine Ann Cullen, Erin Fornoff, and musicians Sam Brown and Pearse McGloughlin as part of Harold's Cross Festival in the Education Centre Theatre in Our Lady's Hospice, Harold's Cross.

It was an honour to be included in the 'Blank Page: Poets in Conversation' series in the National Library on 10 May, where Niall Macmonagle chaired a discussion with me and John O'Donnell about our poetry. We each discussed the process of writing the title poems of our recent collections, First the Feathers, and Sunlight.

My review of Anna Carey's Mollie on the March is in the current issue of Books Ireland.

I had a very enjoyable evening as Kate Ennals' guest At the Edge, reading with Rosemary Jenkinson, Stephanie Conn, and Ron Carey in Cavan's Johnston Library, on 1 May.

My piece in Harolds Xpress, about my trip to Kerala Literary Festival this February.