November the 8th is going to be a busy night for book launches. A total of 5 Irish poets will be launching their new collections that evening. Adam Wyeth, Jean O’Brien and Patrick Chapman will be launching their respective books in Books Upstairs at 6:30pm. Here are the lovely covers: Meanwhile in the Teachers’ Club on […]
Category: Blog
RIP: Shirley McClure
I was very sad to hear of the passing of the poet Shirley McClure today. Since meeting Shirley at the launch of her second collect, Stone Dress (Arlen House), she has been very kind to me in my own writing. In Carlow, we had the pleasure of her company with Jane Clarke and Breda Wall Ryan, which Derek […]
Galway Advertiser Review of Jewtown
I was delighted to hear that Jewtown got another review, this time in the Galway Advertiser by Kevin Higgins. Here is the text of the review below: JEWTOWN, SIMON Lewis’s debut poetry collection, published by Connemara’s Doire Press, tells the story of Cork’s Jewish community, from their arrival fleeing pogroms in 19th century Czarist Russia, […]
A Jewtown Mitzvah – talk
It’s interesting that it appears the closing of the Cork Jewish Synagogue seems to have resurrected some form of community in the Munster region. Interestingly, from my own perspective, it is not an Orthodox community that is coming together, but a Reform Jewish Community, a more modern version of Judaism, which confirm to more of […]
Reading in Cork City
I’m looking forward to my next reading in Waterstones in Cork City this coming Thursday with William Wall. When I say I’m looking forward to it, I’m also feeling most nervous about this reading because it’s going to be the closest I’ve been to Jewtown physically for a reading. I assume some of the crowd […]
Some Jewtown-related Reading
I’m having a few days away in Mayo with the in-laws and decided to buy a couple of books with me. There’s no wifi or phone connection in my mother-in-law’s house so Internet is limited to a few snatches of connection whenever I’m in an area where there is coverage, hence this very very short post. I […]
First Review of Jewtown
I was thrilled to have my first review of Jewtown today in Southword Magazine by Thomas McCarthy. Thomas has been a great support to me. A few years ago he took a day to show me around Jewish Cork and told me all about the history of the people. He lent me a number of books […]
Evening Echo Article
I was delighted to have an article about Jewtown published in the Evening Echo a few weeks ago. Here is the article pasted from the original, which can be found here. THE Albert Road area of Cork, known as Jewtown, is the subject matter of a new poetry collection by Simon Lewis, writes Colette Sheridan. […]
Sketched
During my reading in Bantry Bookshop, there was a lady who was sketching me throughout. I never spoke to her but she gave one of the sketches to Rozz for Emrys. I’ve never been sketched before except one of those cartoony ones you do when you’re drunk on a sun holiday. Whoever you are, thank […]
Shelfie Time
I know it’s probably stupid but I get such a kick out of seeing my books on the shelves. This photo is my books in Bantry Bookshop. As I was taking the photograph, two women were looking at the book and talking about the area of Jewtown. I couldn’t resist introducing myself and they told […]