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, […]
Category: Jewtown
The closest I’ll get to Michael Longley
One of my dreams when I got my publishing deal for Jewtown was to see my book on the shelf of a proper bookshop. Over the weekend that dream came true. Here is my book in Books Upstairs.
Where most of the reaserch came from
Any time I’ve been interviewed, I’m always asked where did I get my research on the people who lived in Jewtown. There was very little there but one of the sources came from a really good book if one is interested in the history of the Jewish people in Ireland. Dermot Keogh’s History of the […]
Hey from Hay!
I had a great time at the Hay Festival in Kells last weekend. It has to be the most friendly festival I’ve ever been to. The organisers couldn’t do enough to make one feel like they were a superstar! There was even a green room with all the coffee, food and treats that you could […]
In the Nationalist
I was delighted to have my launch featured in the Carlow Nationalist. Text is below the photograph A BOOK of poetry about a generation of Jews who emigrated to Ireland from Lithuania during the late 19th century was the inspiration behind a new book of poetry by Simon Lewis. Simon, who founded and is the […]
South Terrace Synagogue: March 2016
South Terrace Synagogue, the main synagogue in Cork, used by much of the community of Jewtown, closed its doors in February 2016. The building was deconsecrated before being handed over to the Church of the Seventh Day Adventists. While it is understandable that the building had to be gutted due to it being in terrible disrepair, it […]
On Writing Jewtown
This article appeared in the Irish Times yesterday. Thanks to Martin Turner for publishing the article. – * – I became a poet by accident. When my wife, Rozz, and I moved to Carlow during the Celtic Tiger years, we knew nobody. Both of us dabbled in writing so we decided to join a local […]
Grace Wells’ Launch Speech
I was very lucky to have chosen such an inspiring person to launch my poetry collection. Grace Wells, very kindly, allowed me to publish the speech she made about Jewtown at the launch. Firstly I want to say how very honoured I feel to be launching Simon’s beautiful book: Jewtown. Honoured and moved. This isn’t […]
Jewtown – the Launch
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 […]
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, […]