Send us a textAs we write it is 1002 days since the fullscale invasion of Ukraine by Russia, but over ten years since Putin first seized Crimea and sponsored insurrection in the Donbas. And even longer that he has sought to meddle in Ukrainian affairs. So we thought we would mark those suffering filled days and years by talking to Oksana Maksymchuk whose Still City: Diary of an Invasion, published by Carcanet Press, came out this year. Oksana is also translator and co editor of Words for War:...
Send us a textFirst up on today's show, I chat with Liam Carson, who is back again with another episode of the Irish language Festival, IMRAM. And we hear from Kelly Michels, whose Forward Prize shortlisted debut collection, American Anthem, published by Gallery Press this year, focuses on the tragedies both personal and national, of the opioid epidemic and its devastating effects of addiction and of gun violence in America, where the poet grew up. We talk to Kelly about growing up in t...
Send us a textToday's show features conversation and poems from two poets with new collections: Katie Donovan, whose collection May Swim, is published by Bloodaxe Books, and Micheál McCann, whose debut collection Devotion, is published by Gallery Press.Both poets take on the Toaster Challenge, this time a Toaster Poem Challenge. Micheál' choce is Louise Glück's 'Sunset' from her collection The Wild Iris, while Katie chooses Pascale Petit's ‘Jaguar Girl.’ from Mama Amazonica.Intro/outro music:...
Send us a textWe're back from the summer break and in conversation with Christine Dwyer Hickey, who was the subject of our very first Books for Breakfast podcast. This time around we're talking to her about her latest novel Our London Lives, just published this week. We also give ourselves a double Toaster Challenge. Enda talks about Alba de Cespedes' Roman novel Forbidden Notebook, while Peter stays in Rome but goes back 2000 years to the last years of the Republic and the poet Catullus, tw...
Send us a textOn today's edition, the last before our summer break, we look at new editions of Poetry Ireland Review and The Stinging Fly. We feature recordings of three poets published in Poetry Ireland Review: Valentine Jones, Patrick Chapman and Shakeema Edwards, and we also feature a poem by Gormfhlaith Ní Shíocháin Ní Bheoláin from The Stinging Fly. Enda discusses the novels of Tessa Hadley, who also has an. essay in The Stinging Fly, and we travel to Cavan for the launc...
Send us a textOn today's show we interview poet, novelist and publisher of Bloodaxe Books Neil Astley. We talk to Neil about the latest Bloodaxe Books poetry anthology, Soul Feast, poems to stir the mind and feed the spirit, companion volume to 2007's Soul Food. We also talk about how he got into publishing, what poetry means to him and some of the discoveries he's made along the way. Two Irish poets in the anthology, Enda Coyle Greene and Mary O'Donnell , read their co...
Send us a textToday’s show marks 25 years since the foundation of the Strokestown International Poetry Festival in Co. Roscommon. This year’s festival takes place over the May Bank weekend, May 3 - 5. We spoke to the Director, Joseph Woods about the festival and his new book, Veld Fires. We also feature poems by Eva Bourke whose Tattoos was published this year, and Patrick Deeley, who reads from his new collection, Keepsake.We also interview the Welsh poet Tony Curtis , whose new collec...
Send us a textToday’s show marks Poetry Day Ireland with readings by the five poets shortlisted for the Strokestown International Poetry Competion, the winner of which will be announced at the Festival over the May Bank Holiday Weekend. And we go the Trinity College Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation to talk to poet Paul Muldoon about his role as Ireland Professor of Poetry and his new collection of poems Joy in Service on Rue Tagore.Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Sh...
Send us a textWe’re joined on this morning’s show by Mary Costello, whose new collection of short stories, Barcelona, has just been published by Canongate."Barcelona is full of devastating lines … Costello is working in the tradition of her literary heroes [Kafka, Musil, Coetzee]: delivering insights which are painful but also energising because of the beauty with which they're captured … The most impressive collection I've read in some time" JOHN SELF The Times"Clear-eyed and pro...
Send us a textOn this mornings's show we talk to Victoria Kennefrick about her new collection Egg/Shell, just published by Carcanet, a double album, as she describes it, which explores early motherhood and miscarriage, and the impact of a spouse's gender transition and the dissolution of a marriage. The book is a follow-up to her widely acclaimed first collection Eat or We Both Starve. Hers had been described as one of the boldest poetic voices to emerge in recent years and Egg/Shell is...
Send us a textOn today's show we discuss Fleur Adcock's Collected Poems, newly published by Bloodaxe Books, and we go to the launch of two more Bloodaxe books in Hodges Figgis, Kerry Hardie's We Go On and Aoife Lyall's The Day Before. We talk to both poets about their work and listen to them reading their poems. So put the kettle on and join us!Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Incidental...
Send us a textWe're back with a show dedicated to a book commemorating the life and achievement of a fondly remembered writer: Distant Summers: Remembering Philip Casey, Writer, Fabulist, Friend, edited by Eamonn Wall, Katie Donovan and Michael Considine, Arlen House, 2024. We feature contributions by Katie Donovan, Dermot Bolger and Michael O'Loughlin, and Michael Agustin reading his poem from the book.We also cover the recently announced winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize and readings of poems ...
Send us a textNot Books for Breakfast this time but a link to our poetry programme Stanza on RTE Radio 1. In conversation with fellow poets, Paula Meehan and Annemarie Ní Churreáin, Enda Wyley and Peter Sirr will discuss why poetry matters. We also visit Poetry Ireland to hear about their big plans for 2024, and hear from viral spoken word poet Mikey Cullen. Produced by Clockwork Productions, producer Fiona Kelly. Additional reporting by Taylor Mooney.Support the show
Send us a textWe're not back in full podcast mode quite yet but we will be back in the autumn, all going well, and in the meantime we visited poet James Harpur during his stint as Trinity College Writer Fellow and we thought it was time for a couple of summer poems. Have a listen and enjoy the summer!Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Incidental music "Timeless One" by Solas. Ar...
Send us a textEnda has been recovering from a recent injury so podcast productivity has taken a hit, but we're back with our first episode for a while, which features a conversation about Basho with Andrew Fitzsimons, whose Basho: The Complete Haiku of Matsuo Basho has recently been published by the University of California Press. And we've got the old toaster working again and revived the Toaster Challenge. Andrews's choice is Three Days by Thomas Bernhard.Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iom...
Send us a textSome of the highlights of this year's Books for Breakfast, featuring contributions by Gabriel Byrne, Thomas McCarthy, Wendy Erskine, Colm Tóibín, Brian Leyden, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Leland Bardwell, Kevin Power, John McAuliffe, Kelly Michels, Mark Granier, Judith Mok and Mark Roper.Enda and Peter also discuss some of the books on their desks at the moment: The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World by David...
Send us a textWelcome to a special Books for Breakfast edition this morning to celebrate Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin's 80th birthday. We wish her all the best on this very special day. This isan edited audio version of the interview we did in 2020 in MoLi to celebrate the publication of her Collected Poems. Listen and enjoy!Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.Artwork by Freya Si...
Send us a textToday we talk to Liam Carson, Director of annual Irish language festival Imram, about this year's programme. And we interview Mark Roper about his latest collection of poems, Beyond Stillness, of which Martina Evans wrote in the Irish Times:Roper has an unerring sense of the gulfs between the miracle and damnation, life’s beginning and its end:As I dragged the dead harefrom the road, a crack of bone.Those marvellous feet, mishandled.Its shadow waits on the moonbut the hare is na...
Send us a textOn todays’s show we talk to Judith Mok, whose memoir The State of Dark has just been published by Lilliput. Judith Mok was born in the Netherlands, to Jewish survivors of the Holocaust. She trained as a classical singer and travelled the world performing as a soloist, and has also fiction and poetry. For the last twenty years she has been based in Ireland, where she works as a voice coach with classical singers and international pop stars. The State of Dark is a memo...
Send us a textDoes love poetry still pack a punch? Do new anthologies of love poetry have anything to say about the kind of world we live in? Join us on today’s show to hear some answers as we discuss Romance Options: Love Poems for Today, just out from Dedalus Press. We’ll be talking to editors Joseph Woods and Leanne Quinn, and we’ll be listening to poems read by contributors Mark Granier, Catherine Ann Cullen, Mark Roper, Kelly Michels, Martina Dalton, Philip Davison, Seán Lysaght, Grace W...