Categories: Blog

I never thought I'd travel to Cork for an hour, but last Friday I had booked myself in for a manuscript makeover with James Harpur. This was the second time I've used this mentoring service, which is part of the Cork Spring Poetry Festival and I wanted to see how some of my new work was shaping up. Although I only had an hour, I managed to steal a little bit of time before and after the session. I had lunch in Iyer's, which was really really tasty and when I was trying to find my car after the session, I walked by Sless Carpets, formerly owned by Jewish people from Cork. I was delighted with James' feedback and would recommend this session to any poet, whatever their experience. It's given me a new focus for my poems and I think I have unlocked the key as to why I didn't think some of the poems weren't working. [gallery size="medium"...

I was interviewed on RTE 2XM's London Ear programme before my reading this weekend at Jewish Book Week. What made the interview a little bit different was I was being interviewed by a long time family friend who hosts this arts show based in London for Irish listeners. In the interview I spoke about how I started writing poetry after a flirtation with Britpop-inspired 4-chord guitar playing and being raised Jewish in Ireland, while Vanessa remembered her first encounters with Chopped Herring. You can hear the interview on Nessy.com's web site: http://nessymon.com/the-london-ear-on-rte-2xm-show-144-simon-lewis-and-the-survival-code/

Apart from having my book published, last week I got the best news. Jewtown has been shortlisted for the Shine/Strong award. This award is for the best first collection of poetry by an Irish poet. There are three Irish poets shortlisted for this award and apart from me, they are Stephanie Conn (also of Doire Press) and Adam Crothers. The awards happen on March 26th.

I'm happy to have had 3 of my poems published in the Honest Ulsterman. The three poems were all written when Emrys was very tiny and possibly in the middle of the night. I decided not to send them off for at least a year or two to try and make sure that they weren't too sentimental. I've edited out any of that sort of stuff and was delighted that the three were selected to be published. You can read them at: http://humag.co/poetry/birthmark-spilt-milk-butterfly

I was delighted to get my hands on two new books this week. Cold Coffee at Emo Court by Arthur Broomfield, and Several Deer by Adam Crothers. The second book has been shortlisted for the Sine/Strong Award along with me and Stephanie Conn so I had to check out the competition! I've already read the first few poems and I am loving it! It is achingly clever and every line of every poem has a moment of "wow" in it. The language is just great fun and highly witty with knowing showboating where he enjambs a hyphenated word but tells us he's going to do it in the previous line. I would love to have the confidence and craft to be able to create such interesting...

I was interested to see a new anthology of poems about Cork City that was published recently and edited by Alannah Hopkins with support from the Munster Literature Centre. It is a large anthology of poems about Cork City. It contains lots of well-known poems from history, (The Banks of the Lovely Lee), with several poems by classic and contemporary poets who have written about the city. The book is divided into geographical parts of the city and a quick flick through demonstrated the wealth of poetry that has been written about the people and the city. It's great to see another collection of poems about Cork City and I only wish it had been published a few years ago so I could have taken some inspiration for...

My pile of books got bigger again today. I couldn't resist buying Paula Meehan's Geomantic. I am very attracted to the mathematical nature of these poems and can't wait to dive in. Unfortunately, it has to go on a waiting list behind A Land Not Theirs by David Marcus, Religion for Atheists by Alain de Botton and A Tug of Blue by Eleanor Hooker (which I'm reading at the same time as the first book.)

One of my newer poems, Conception, has been shortlisted in the International Poetry Festival in Strokestown, Co. Roscommon. The results will be announced at the festival at the end of April. As part of being shortlisted, I have been invited to read some of my poetry at the festival.

I am thrilled and very nervous to be launching the Representations of Jews in Irish Literature Exhibition in Waterford IT on February 1st. This exhibition from the Ulster University is touring the country and its February leg is in Waterford, where once there was a small Jewish population, which left their mark. I'm going to be addressing the crowd about my own research into Jewtown and how I came to writing the book. I'm not sure if I'll be reading any of the poems but hopefully, I'll be able to give a decent context to the affair. For anyone interested in coming along, the event takes place in Waterford IT at 6pm on 1st February.Some friendly faces would be deeply appreciated! The featured image above is the 1901 wedding of Miss Esther Levin of John Street in Waterford to Mr Myer Stein of Dublin. It's doing the rounds on social media in...