WOMEN RULE WRITER

CHRISTMAS IN NEW ZEALAND IN MY RED CAR

2009-12-24T09:58:00.000Z

I have landed safely at Rachel's blog for the first stop on The Red Car Tour. Please go here to eavesdrop on our poetry chat and enjoy some car-shaped shortbread and mince pies.

Wishing all my blog readers a Nollaig Shona and a peaceful, creative and prosperous 2010.

POEM FOR MY SISTER

2009-12-23T08:08:00.001Z

A poem in memory of my sister Nessa on her anniversary.

Kingfisher Sister

In the halcyonic hours of winter solstice,

you loosened your grip

for the slip towards death.

You had no mate to hoist you on his back

and fly over the flat-calm sea,

mourning you with his cries.

But in your last storm, a thaisce, never fear,

our sorrow saw you safely

into the blue, in a blaze of red.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

(Image from Outdoor Photo.)

VIRTUAL POETRY TOUR KICKS OFF XMAS EVE

2009-12-21T20:53:00.001Z

I've decided to do a mini virtual tour for Portrait of the Artist with a Red Car, my new poetry pamphlet out from Templar Poetry. I have a few poet/bloggers lined up to host me. Thanks y'all.
Sick of all the ice and frost here, I am jetting off to sunny New Zealand for my first stop at the blog-home of the lovely Rachel Fenton, which is seasonally (?!) called Snow Like Thought.
Tune in on Christmas Eve for our chat. We talk about poetic obsessions and Paul Durcan, amongst other things.
HUGE thanks to Total Feckin' Eejit who designed my tour logo above. Thanks TFE!

KENNYS BOOK SIGNING PICS

2009-12-19T20:25:00.001Z

Author Gerry Hanberry

The book signing in Kennys today was lovely: well attended, friendly and, hopefully for Kennys, lucrative. We had mince pies and mulled wine, coffee and Christmas cake, and lots of chats.

Author Geraldine Mills

Kennys is one of Ireland's best bookshops - it is run by people who genuinely and wholeheartedly LOVE books. And art. They have an art gallery on site.

Author Fred Johnston

Kennys are famous for hanging photos of visiting authors - the fame quotient is v high - and we had a group pic taken today as well as individual shots for their website and archive. Maybe even their wall.

Author Órfhlaith Foyle & Juno

It was nice to meet up with the great and good of Galway writing: Geraldine Mills, Gerry Hanberry, Órfhlaith Foyle, Fred Johnston, Dara Foyle, Colm Brady, Conor Montague, Alan Caden, Lucy McCrann, Sandra Bunting, Aideen Henry, Colette Nic Aodha, Tom Mathews, John Quinn, James Martyn Joyce, Aoife Casby, Michael O'Loughlin... I know I have forgotten people, so I do apologise for that.

The writers! Kennys - 19th December 2009

Anyhoo, books were bought, literature was celebrated and a good time was had.

JOHN MINIHAN AND ME

2009-12-17T09:39:00.006Z

WRITER EDNA O'BRIEN PHOTOGRAPHED BY JOHN MINIHAN, LONDON 1971

I'm having a me, me, me moment. I could moan and gnash and tell you all why...shall I? Hmmm. Let me put it this way, I'm fed up giving and getting nothing back. Why are certain creative people so selfish!? Grrr, gnash, seethe.

So, to continue with the me, me, me theme of this post, look here in Southword for pics that John Minihan (John effing Minihan!!!) took of me and my partner and Juno at the Frank O'Connor Festival. This man has photographed Beckett, Bacon, Diana the Princess of Wales, and one of my heroines, Edna O'Brien, as well as various other wonderful and famous people. I am thrilled!

John is the annual official photographer at the Frank O'Connor Festival (aren't the Munster Literature people clever?) and you can buy limited edition prints from his website of Beckett if you are flush or buy one of John's books of photographs An Unweaving of Rainbows - Images of Writers here at the Book Depository.

EMERGING SHORT FIC WRITERS - THE IWC WANTS YOU!!

2009-12-16T20:09:00.002Z

The Irish Writers’ Centre have announced a new event for new fiction writers starting in January 2010: The Lonely Voice: Short Story Introductions.

The Lonely Voice: Short Story Introductions will take place on the last Wednesday of every month. Four short story writers will be selected and invited to read their work at the event. They are particularly interested in providing a platform for emerging writers who previously may not have had the opportunity to read their work in public.

The inaugural event will take place on Wednesday 27th January. They are currently seeking featured readers and are accepting submissions until 8th January.

Send the short story you would like to read and a short bio to: thelonelyvoice@gmail.com

KENNY'S LITERARY BOOK SIGNING for XMAS

2009-12-15T13:18:00.008Z

I am taking part in Kenny's Book Shop's Galway Literary Book Signing for Christmas, this Saturday the 19th of December, between 12pm and 2pm.

Kenny's famous book shop are hosting a celebration for authors from Galway who have had books published throughout 2009. There will be more than a dozen authors there on the day which will take place at Kenny's Bookshop in the Liosbán Retail Park, Tuam Road, Galway.

I will be there signing copies of Portrait of the Artist with a Red Car (for definite) and Nude (maybe - I am awaiting a delivery!)

Other authors signing on the day will include Órfhlaith Foyle, Geraldine Mills, John Quinn, James “Martyn” Joyce, Gerry Hanberry, Joe Steve Ó Neachtain, Willie Henry, Ger Burke, Colette Nic Aodha, Tom Mathews, Loughrea Creative Writing/Baffle and The Atlantis Collective.

Kenny's say they "are proud to host such an event which encapsulates local talent. At a time when we, as a country are being told to buy local, these authors have made it exceptionally easy for book lovers to buy Irish. Every author possesses their own unique style and delivery which is sure to attract the attention of any book reader."

And Desi Kenny says, “This event is a wonderful Galway way to celebrate a Galway Christmas.”

Free parking and seasonal refreshments on the day. All are welcome.
For further information contact Desi Kenny on 091709350 or desi@kennys.ie

Xmasy photo by Karen O'Neill

ARLEN HOUSE DUBLIN LAUNCH

2009-12-14T18:16:00.012Z

Terry McDonagh

Alan Hayes - Arlen House

Writer Órfhlaith Foyle and Catherine Leahy

Four Foyles: John, Rebecca, Órfhlaith & Gearóid

A festive looking Unitarian Church

Rebecca Foyle, Aeneas and Catherine Leahy

Celia de Fréine signing her book Immram / Odyssey

It has taken a while (crazy busy) but I am finally able to post a few pics from last Tuesday's Arlen House Poetry launch in Dublin. The press, with the help of Poetry Ireland Director Joseph Woods's help, launched 5 books:

Celia de Fréine - Immram / Odyssey

Órfhlaith Foyle - Red Riding Hood's Dilemma

James Martyn - Shedding Skin

Geraldine Mills - An Urgency of Stars

Terry McDonagh - The Truth in Mustard

The Unitarian Church is such a beautiful and central venue and there were plenty of poets and writers present in the crowd including Patrick Chapman, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, and Christodoulos Makris.

The MD of Arlen House, Alan Hayes, in his speech thanked the cover artists (who include Pauline Bewick) which I thought was nice. He also said that all of the 75 book he has published have been printed in Ireland thus keeping Irish printers in business. A valid and worthy point when many publishers look to Eastern Europe and beyond in an effort to keep costs low.

Ir was a lovely, warm-hearted launch and each writer read beautifully - just 3 poems from their collection. Enough to whet the appetite. All the books are available to buy from Dubray Books, Shop Street, Galway.

3 BOOKS FOR XMAS 2009

2009-12-07T19:00:00.007Z

I can’t keep up with all the fabulous journals, chapbooks and books I get sent/buy/swap. I want to blog about all of them but I’d be here night and day if I did. But I would like to give a swift mention to three that really impressed me lately:

Best Irish Poetry in English 2010, edited by Matthew Sweeney (Southword Editions)

This one is being launched this Wednesday night at 7.30pm in the Munster Literature Centre in Cork with mulled wine, candlelight and mince pies. Oh, how I wish I could be there. Matthew Sweeney is an excellent Irish poet with an eye for the quirky, the absurd and the moving. This is reflected in many of his choices in this handsome production which is an annual event from Southword Editions. He writes a cracking, honest editorial too.
Poets include Séamus Heaney, Leontia Flynn and Kerry Hardie. I even have a poem in there – so proud! Special price of €10 from the site with free P&P within Ireland.
Buy here.

Round the Clock – Christodoulos Makris (Wurm Press)

A poet from Cyprus based in Ireland, Christodoulos Makris writes witty, extraordinary work. This is a chapbook from Wurm Press, described in a review as ‘a controlled explosion of twelve poems that reveal inner prepossessions and fiery confrontations to self, and country. They are charged with desire and a powerful will...’
I was knocked out by the skill of this writer; he deserves to be taken up by one of our good/big poetry publishing houses. In the meantime you can buy this chapbook from his blog, yes but is it poetry?, or indeed exchange it for a book of your own if you are a writer.

Davy Byrnes Stories – as selected by Richard Ford (Stinging Fly Press)

This includes the five shortlisted and one winning story from the recent Davy Byrnes Short Story competition which was administered by The Stinging Fly. Claire Keegan was the eventual winner with her fine story ‘Foster’. It is vintage Claire: it's rural, and concerns a young girl and a background tragedy. It has beautiful detail and the sparse dialogue is pitch perfect.
All of the stories are good, of course - some I enjoyed more than others. Kathleen Murray’s ‘Storm Glass’ is beautifully layered and it plays with the notion of truth and memory and family secrets. It is gentle and gorgeously well written.
What is nice too is that each writer introduces their story with a short piece on its genesis. Fascinating.
Buy here for €10 which includes P&P.

ARLEN HOUSE POETRY LAUNCHES

2009-12-07T10:24:00.004Z

My dear friend and writer-in-arms, Órfhlaith Foyle, will launch her new poetry collection Red Riding Hood's Dilemma (Arlen House) not once, but twice this week.

Launch #1: Tuesday 8th December - Unitarian Church, Dublin @ 6.30pm
Along with An Urgency of Stars, another poetry collection by another good friend, Geraldine Mills

Launch #2: Wednesday 9th December - City Library, Galway @ 6pm

All welcome. Books make beautiful Xmas pressies, people!

REMEMBRANCE

2009-12-06T20:13:00.007Z

My neighbour from my homeplace in Mill Lane died yesterday. She saw my parents grow up, she saw all of us grow up, and she was like an aunt/granny to me.

I was the kind of kid who hung around adults and I loved this woman's stories and songs, so I spent a lot of time in her house. I also loved all the goodies she used to give me and my sisters and friends: chocolate, Fox's mints, biscuits and lemonade.

She lived in a long, typically Irish 3-room cottage, with no running water and no flush loo, even in the 21st Century. She loved B&W TV, B&W photos, sugared jellies and wildflowers; she rarely left our hometown - all she wanted was within a one mile radius of her house.

I wrote this poem, which appeared in Crannóg Autumn 2009 about her house after she left it to go to hospital long term. She won the virgin statue at a fairground stall many years ago. Her name was May.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh sí. Rest in peace.

The Virgin Statue

And she will still be there, tall as a toddler,
static in her wooden cave, table-bound,
queening it over the piano where mice tinker,

over an empty, many-coverleted bed,
the clock, hollowed out of chimes,

over a sea of mats, the black-and-white TV
– conduit to this century – blank-screened, silent.

Her eyes mad with sorrow, she misses, maybe,
the mingle of fried spuds and Coty, the ghosts of dogs,
the May-long worship at her shrine.

CONGRATS PETINA!

2009-12-03T09:42:00.002Z

Huge congrats to Petina Gappah who has won the Guardian's First Book Award for An Elegy for Easterly, her stunning short fiction collection. Yay! More here.

SOUTHWORD 17 ONLINE NOW

2009-12-02T21:32:00.004Z

So much to blog about, so little time...

Southword Journal Online, issue 17, is now up! Read new work by Martín Espada, Theo Dorgan, Billy Ramsell, Alexa Beattie (this year's Seán Ó Faoláin Competition winner, as chosen by Philip Ó Ceallaigh) and many others.

A quote, to whet, from wonder-poet Billy Ramsell's poem 'Half Time':

'Aphrodite sashayed from the kitchen with the tartan tea tray.
Hermes looked from the soiled dinner dishes

to the paisley wall paper to the telly and emitted a long sigh of boredom.
Hurling, like most team sports, isn't much fun when you know how it finishes.'

The Cork poets have it all going on, I always feel: they are witty, learned, NICE!!!

By the way, the advertised photos by John Minihan will follow next week. I'm looking forward to that.

And Jennifer Matthew's thoughtful review of Nude is there too.

Lovely Southword...!

IRISH WRITERS' CENTRE OPEN DAY

2009-12-02T18:07:00.004Z

What fun - an open day this Saturday at the Irish Writers' Centre. Lots to please all you discerning writers:

The day will start at 12pm with a Literary Coffee Morning, where people have the chance to bring along a favourite poem or story and share them.

There will then be readings from 1pm with Eileen Casey and Kieran Furey.

The interns have organised a writing session at 3pm which will be suitable for all levels of experience.

This will be followed by an address by the chairman, Jacke Harte, about the Irish Writers' Centre and a presentation on poet and playwright Alice Milligan by writer in residence, Catherine Morris.

At 5pm the reading room will share its podium with the public for an Open Mike session for writers and musicians.

And at 7pm there will be a literary table quiz which costs €16 per table of 4 and will have an array of fantastic prizes kindly donated by Easons.

More here.

AN ALL-WOMAN SHORT FIC S'LIST

2009-11-30T18:32:00.005Z

Well looky, looky.

It's an all-woman short list for this year's BBC National Short Story Award which was previously won by Clare Wigfall and Julian Gough.

The shortlist is:

Other People's Gods by Naomi Alderman

The Not-Dead and the Saved by Kate Clanchy

Moss Witch by Sara Maitland

Hitting Trees With Sticks by Jane Rogers

Exchange Rates by Lionel Shriver

The winner will be announced on the evening of Monday, 7th December.

More here.

SHORT CIRCUIT - a guide to the Art of the Short Story

2009-11-29T19:09:00.005Z

With all the to'ing and fro'ing of the last few weeks, I haven't had a chance to mention Short Circuit, Salt Publishing's guide to writing the short story. I have an essay in there on style. There are contributions from Clare Wigfall, Tania Hershman, Vanessa Gebbie, Lane Ashfeldt, Alison Macleod, Matthew Licht and Tobias Hill, among many others.

The book will arrive at this blog on its virtual tour at some point in the not too distant future in the arms of its very able editor, Vanessa Gebbie.

It is a LARGE volume, comprehensive in nature and nicely varied. It would make a lovely Christmas pressie for your local friendly short story nut. It has a 20% discount on the retail price at the mo, so is a recession friendly £11.99 stg.

Buy it here at Salt's site.

NUDE'S DUBLIN LAUNCH - PICS

2009-11-27T12:06:00.014Z

Barbara Smith and Nuala

Various nudes from the Naked Ambition exhibition

Teresa Cooney, Eta Carney and Hugh O'Connor

Female nude - Naked Ambition

Men with nudes

Declan and Saoirse Kenny

Writers Akis Makris and Kate Thompson

Karen O'Neill

Writers Aiden O'Reilly and Kathleen Murray

Wednesday night was the final launch of Nude. It took place in Dublin in the NGG gallery, with a backdrop of beautiful art from the Three Rock Art Group called 'Naked Ambition'. Serendipitous, or what?
Thanks so much to all those who turned up. Major thanks to Barbara Smith who gave a wonderful, blush-inducing speech - the book is well and truly launched now. Go raibh maith agaibh, one and all!!

DERWENT POETRY FESTIVAL - A REVIEW

2009-11-25T08:47:00.013Z

The Derwent Poetry Festival was fantastic: relaxed and friendly and there were lots and lots of women poets reading, which made a refreshing change from many literary festivals.

Friday night kicked off in Masson Mills with the presentations to the four 2009 Templar Poetry pamphlet winners (of which I’m one) and a reading from Pat Winslow.

Masson Mills is an enormous textile mill which has has been converted into a shopping area and conference suites. It lies just outside the Victorian spa resort of Matlock Bath which is situated more or less in a gorge. The whole place is stunning: stone-cut houses, the impressive gorge over the river, sweet little souvenir shops, Victorian bandstands and foot-bridges. It is a gorgeous place to hold a poetry festival. And in nearby Cromford, there is a fabulous, quirky bookshop called Scarthin Books that has a café with veggie food and vegan cake. Vegan cake! It was made for us...

As a former actress, Pat Winslow read beautifully and I enjoyed her poetry which featured, among many things, salt, flits to France and some work based on her experience of working in prisons. Sample here.

With baby in tow, I didn’t get to every reading but I got to as much as I could. My own reading was on the Saturday afternoon with fellow pamphlet winner, Omagh native Dawn Wood. Dawn is a very engaging and warm reader. She is a scientist by profession (in a Dundee university) and she read beautiful science-inspired poetry about everything from hummingbird names to taxidermy.

Poets Dawn Wood, Paul Maddern, me, Katrina Naomi

I read exclusively from my pamphlet Portrait of the Artist with a Red Car, which was unusual and fun, as many of the poems are quite recent. I will be giving away copies here next week, so stay tuned!

Belfast resident, Bermuda born Paul Maddern – another pamphlet winner – read later on in the day; I thoroughly enjoyed his poetry which was full of rich, unusual language; some of the poems were very moving and they were packed with the colour and vibrancy of the landscape in Bermuda.

The Irish feature strongly on Templar Poetry’s list, and Saturday night saw two more Irish poets take the floor: Maggie O’Dwyer from Dublin and Enniskillen man Nigel McLoughlin. Both read wonderfully well – I laughed out loud at some of the wry and often hilarious moments in both of their work. Maggie was launching her first full collection and she stated that ‘First collections are about the past’, which I am inclined to agree with. Like her pamphlet, which won last year’s competition, her collection Laughter Heard from the Road, is full of slant humour, colour, pear trees and wafts of cigarette smoke. My only complaint about Maggie’s reading was that it was too short – I could’ve listened to her for ages.

Nigel started his reading by saying it was great to read to an audience that loves poetry but also scary. ‘What if they don’t like the work?’ he worried. He needn’t have fretted – we loved the work. He read many beautiful, crafted poems featuring his family, including the stunning poem ‘Topography’ where he and his sons’ and wife’s bodies make mountains in ‘the Ireland of the bed’. Nigel’s language is sparky and fresh and his poems are incredibly well made.

The last full reading I attended was the last reading of the festival, featuring Scottish poet Angela Cleland and Katrina Naomi from London. Angela leans towards performance poetry and she has a confident, conversational style. She talked about how at readings everything you say and do can be taken away and used by the other poets, and then read a poem about a striking woman at a lit event, whom she had ‘stolen’ for a poem.

Katrina Naomi

Katrina Naomi’s poetry is very much my cup of tea: it is dark, concise, blackly humorous and zinging with life. Katrina’s personal style is genteel rockabilly and she looked fabulous in a purple 1940’s dress which was gifted to her by a member of last year’s Derwent Festival audience! Don’t you just love the nice things that happen via poetry?! Katrina is currently writer-in-res at Haworth, home of the Brontë sisters. She read from her new collection The Girl with the Cactus Handshake and a stand-out poem for me was ‘Tunnel of Love’ which is set in Dreamland, her local childhood amusement park in Margate. It’s a sharp poem about male vanity and teenage love/lust-angst. I loved all of her work and her reading was a great ending to what was a fantastic, warm-hearted festival. All credit to Templar Poetry’s main man, Alex Mc Millen.

Alex McMillen - publisher, Templar Poetry

Two things to note:
1) Templar publish the literary magazine Iota and there is still time to enter their first poetry competition here.

2) Next year’s pamphlet and collection competition will be judged by Pat Winslow. I will advertise it here as soon as details become available.

Portrait of the Artist with a Red...Vehicle?!

Thanks, once again, to Culture Ireland for funding!

NEW 'NUDE' REVIEW & 2 LAUNCHES

2009-11-24T10:53:00.007Z

INVITE TO GERALDINE MILLS'S LAUNCH - click image to read

NEW NUDE REVIEW
Marc Schuster at Small Press Reviews has given Nude a positive review here.

LAUNCH #1 - DUBLIN - NUDE
Nude will be launched tomorrow night, Wednesday the 25th November in Dublin at the NGG Gallery, Temple Bar Cultural Trust, 12 East Essex Street, between 6pm and 8pm.
All book and art lovers welcome.
There will be wine, the book to be bought-n-signed (€10 only!), a short reading and a launch speech from writer Barbara Smith.

LAUNCH #2 - GALWAY - AN URGENCY OF STARS
Meanwhile, in Galway, my friend Geraldine Mill's newest poetry collection from Arlen House, An Urgency of Stars will be launched on Thursday evening in Galway City Library by Josephine Vahey at 6pm. There will be wine, the book for sale and a reading. All welcome.

BACK FROM DERWENT & MELUSINE POEMS

2009-11-23T09:07:00.005Z

A quick post to say I am back in half-a-piece and one book richer from the Derwent Poetry Festival which was magical, fun, relaxed and wonderful. (Half-a-piece because me and The Baby both have colds and are exhausted - but happy!) I will catch up with you all later.

Our town has suffered in the floods so there is all sorts of issues with school closures, no drinking water etc. to be getting on with. Plus the Dublin launch of Nude is on Wednesday. No rest for the wicked or the sick...

I hope to write a proper report on the festival asap. Meanwhile, I have two poems on the Melusine AKA Woman in the 21st Century site, an online journal of literature and art by women (but not only women) about women here.

COLUM MCCANN WINS NAT. BOOK AWARD IN USA

2009-11-19T08:11:00.005Z

I'm thrilled that Colum McCann has won the National Book Award for fiction in the USA for Let the Great World Spin. The novel was one of my favourite reads of this year; I'm a sucker for books set in New York, anyway, but this one is just brilliant. It's a very un-novel-like novel, set up as it is as linked short stories. What the American calls a 'story cycle'.

All the stories are fascinating and Colum's language sings and zings off the page, as usual. I've been a fan of his for as long as he's been publishing books and I was disappointed that lesser books got on the Man Booker list. He said in an interview that he was disappointed about that too. How's that for honesty?

By coincidence I'm re-reading Fishing the Sloe Black River for my book club. My book club is great - they are open to reading anything and everything.

On receiving the award Colum said: 'As fiction writers and people who believe in the word, we have to enter the anonymous corners of human experience to make that little corner right.' Love it!

Ah, I just adore it when literary books get their due recognition. I especially adore it when it's one of our amazing contemporary Irish writers. Go Colum!

More in the NY Times here.

MAGMA'S FUN POETRY-THEMED COMP

2009-11-18T16:08:00.005Z

Inspired by the pulping of a school English anthology which contained an allegedly vicious poem by Carol Ann Duffy, there's a bit of a fun competition going on over at Magma.

They want you to suggest a poem that should be banned from appearing on the (UK) school syllabus and explain why. The best entry will receive an un-pulped copy of the anthology containing Carol Ann's goldfish-drowning poem and a year’s subscription to Magma.

See here for more!

PAMPHLET LAUNCH & READING - IN SASANA

2009-11-17T13:39:00.006Z

I'm off to England on Friday for the Derwent Poetry Festival in Matlock Bath where I will receive my Templar Poetry Award on Friday night - my published pamphlet Portrait of the Artist with a Red Car and a handsome cheque.
I will also read on Saturday with fellow-winner Dawn Wood.

I'm so excited to be going away. 'You need to get off the island every so often,' someone said to me recently. It will do me good to get away from my desk, the house and general baby-related chores. I'm looking forward to meeting my fellow winners, Alex McMillen who runs Templar Poetry and anyone else who is there.
Report when I get back, hopefully!

Big thanks to Culture Ireland for the funding which makes it possible for me to go. Go raibh maith agaibh!

WRITING SPIRIT AWARD - closing soon!

2009-11-16T09:15:00.007Z

There's just two weeks* left to enter the FREE TO ENTER Writing Spirit Award over at Writing4All. There's a not-to-be-sniffed at €1000 top prize.

This short fiction writing competition is open to all Writing4all members. So you just join the site and then you can enter. Easy peasy.

Word count: 750 up to 4000 words

Closing date for entries: 30th November 2009*

Prizes: First: €1000 Second: €300 Third: €150

Result: by 21st December - a nice Xmas prezzie!

All you need to know is here.

* JUST IN: THIS HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO 31st DEC!
NEW: Judge: Nadine O'Regan - books ed of The Sunday Business Post

A MAXIMUS MIRACLE IN GALWAY - WELCOME LIZ

2009-11-12T08:13:00.009Z

I want you all to give a céad míle fáilte to the lovely Liz Gallagher who is stopping by for her Maximus Miracle book tour with her Salt-published poetry collection, The Wrong Miracle. Liz lives in Gran Canaria and in order to celebrate an Irish homecoming for her and The Wrong Miracle, Liz is offering a free copy of the collection (posted to anywhere in the world!) to readers of Women Rule Writer.

All you have to do, to be included in the draw, is mention the interview, book and draw on your blog and/or on Facebook and confirm that you have done so in the comments box here from today. (Or at TFE's blog from the 19th of Nov.). The draw will take place on the 25th of November over at Liz’s blog Musings.

All royalties from Liz’s collection go to SANDS, the stillbirth and neo-natal death charity.

So now, readers, pour that tea, grab that scone and pull up a chair.

N: First of all welcome to my blog, Liz, on your Maximus Miracle Virtual Tour with The Wrong Miracle. Many congrats on the new book – it is an inspiring read. This is my first ever bloggy interview and I’m delighted that you are my guest. So settle down there by the fire and prepare for some woman-centred questioning.

L: Nuala, thanks for the welcome and for having me here, it is a real pleasure, it's great being back here in Galway. I have fond memories of being here during the September heatwave. And now, in autumn, the cosy fire-side setting is ideal for some woman-centred questioning...fire-away!

N: Liz, some of your poetry reminds me of the work of Belfast poet Medbh McGuckian – specifically the surreal nature of many pieces in the book and also the linguistic acrobatics. Would you feel an affinity with Medbh? Are there other Irish women poets who inspire you?

L: I have read some of Medbh's work and like it a lot but must say that I haven't really explored an awful lot of her work....but will do so now out of curiosity...thanks. : )
Irish women poets whose work I know quite well and who would inspire me would be Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Leontia Flynn, Rita Anne Higgins and Mairead Byrne. I also really like Colette Bryce and when I first started reading poetry in the late 80's, I loved Sara Berkeley's work, especially Penn and Home Movie Nights...I haven't read her work in a long while though so not sure what I would think of it now.

N: Maya Angelou said: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” How would you like people to feel on reading and/or hearing your poetry? And – a sneaky sub-question – who do you write for?

L: To answer your sub-question first, Nuala, I definitely start out writing for me – to amuse, surprise and entertain myself...and then when the honeymoon period of me and brand new poem is over...I try to look at it with fresh eyes in order to think of how it will fare on its own with other readers and without me on standby to defend it. It is at this stage that I take a close look at what is working or not working... I try not to lose what got me excited in the first place...there is a fine line between doing that and making a poem ready for others' consumption. So, essentially, I am aware of audience but that awareness doesn't come into play until after I have written the first draft or so.

Regarding how I'd like people to feel on reading/hearing my work, good question, Nuala...naturally, I'd like people to be able to 'click' with my poems, one of the really great things about doing the readings in Ireland during the summer was getting feedback from the audience and hearing them say that they could relate to what I was saying. I think there are a lot of emotions at play in my work and knowing that a reader or listener could maybe feel that emotion or a version of that emotion on hearing or reading the work would be very rewarding for me.
I'd also love for people to feel amused and surprised. Humour is important for me in my work and it's great when people 'get' that humour and read between the lines...

N: You are, obviously, an accomplished poet. Do you also write fiction? Who are your favourite female fiction writers?

L: Thanks, Nuala. I have written flash-fiction, 100, 150 and 200 word pieces and I've had some flash-fiction published in an Anthology by Guildhall Press titled: The Wonderful World of Worders edited by Jenni Doherty.
I have written some non-fiction pieces and have had some published. I would love to attempt to write a short story or two but have not yet had the discipline nor time to sit down and try it ….but maybe some day...
Some of my favourite female fiction writers, apart from yourself, Nuala, and Vanessa Gebbie, another Salt writer whose work I love, would be Zadie Smith, Monica Ali, Flannery O' Connor, Amy Tan, Anne Enright, Edna O'Brien and Marian Keyes...got to just love her humour and style.

N: Thanks so much, Liz, for your time and for stopping by at my blog. Good luck with the rest of the tour. Next week Liz will be at The People's Lost Republic of Eejit with the inimitable TFE.

L: Nuala, thanks very much for your hospitality and for such great questions which I thoroughly enjoyed answering. It's been fun. Hope to catch up with you again next summer!

Liz and baby Juno at Flatlake, summer 2009