Tonight was the launch of my first poetry collection, Jewtown. We had a small get together in the house with some friends and family. I made cholent, a Jewish-Lithuanian stew that takes 16 hours to cook, and the title of one of the poems in the collection. It seemed to go down ok and hopefully […]
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Article in Irish Examiner
I was delighted to see a huge article in the Irish Examiner about my upcoming collection, Jewtown. The article is mostly about the area of Cork which was known as Jewtown but also concentrates a little bit about my own background and heritage. The full text can be read on the Irish Examiner web site, […]
Poetry Introductions 2016
Don’t forget this year’s Poetry Introductions this year. There’s some fantastic poets on each day and I’ve met most of them over the last few years. Here are the details of each night from Poetry Ireland Monday 23 May, 7PM Irish Writers Centre Featured readers: Manuela Moser, Maurice Devitt, Padraig Regan, Amanda Bell Tuesday 24 May, […]
Belfast Book Festival
I’m delighted to be part of this year’s Belfast Book Festival where I will be reading with my fellow Doire Press poets, Stephanie Conn and Michael J Whelan. It’s all happening on Tuesday, 14th June in the Crescent Arts Centre at 6:45pm. Here’s the page from the brochure, which you can read in full by […]
A Receipt with my Name on it!
I’m not sure what sort of person gets a kick out of seeing their name on a till receipt but I am one of them. The last time this happened, I was working in an off-licence and the till receipt would have said something along the lines of “You were served by Simon.” In this […]
Reading at Books Upstairs
I was over the moon to hold Jewtown in my hands for the first time this evening and read from it. I was one of three readers tonight in Books Upstairs. I read alongside Michael J Whelan (Peacekeeper, Doire Press) and Rita Ann Higgins (Tounglish, Bloodaxe). Everyone was there to see Rita but I think […]
Back in UCD
As part of my very busy May 4th, I was invited to read 8 of my poems for the UCD Poetry Archive. It was to happen in the library and my only memories of this were fumbling around for my student card while a very angry looking security guard looked on. It’s all gone much […]
Recording for the Poetry Programme
I was delighted to be back at RTE’s Poetry Programme with Rick O’Shea again. It was lovely to meet Claire Cunningham who made me feel very welcome. I was somewhat prepared this time because Dave Lordan had sent me some fairly tough questions beforehand so I assumed these would be asked of me. I’m really […]
Hennessy Poetry Winner 2016
I was delighted to see that the winner of the Hennessy Emerging Poetry competition was Jane Clarke. I have read Jane’s collection, The River, and have listened to her read from it a few times at different events and enjoyed them thoroughly. The poems that won Jane the accolade are all from this collection.
Getting ready for Poetry Archive
I had the odd experience of having to transcribe some of my poems from Jewtown from print to pen and paper. As part of my visit to UCD on Wednesday, where I will be reading 8 of my poems for the poetry archive, I was asked to hand-write the poems as the archive people think […]