It’s traditional for anyone who runs a website or blog to reflect on the year sometime in December. Never one to rebel against tradition, these are my thoughts on 2016. It has been an exciting year for me as a writer: the highlight, of course, having my first collection published.
I had been writing Jewtown for about 5 years and sending bits and pieces of it off to magazines and journals for publication. I attended John MacKenna’s launch of his most recent poetry collection and on my way out, as I was saying goodbye, John introduced me to John and Lisa from Doire Press. John asked me to send him 20 poems from the collection. I admit I dithered and didn’t get around to it until the end of 2015 but I was delighted to be one of Doire’s poets for 2016 and a few months later in May 2016, my book was released. Obviously, publishing Jewtown is the outstanding highlight of my year, and I am thrilled that John and Lisa took a chance on me and I am very happy that I finally got my 20 poems to them!
Jewtown opened up a number of doors for me in 2016. I met many people with their own links to the Jewtown area and to famous Cork Jewry like David Marcus and Gerald Goldberg. By far, most stories centred around David Marcus who founded New Irish Writing. I spoke to lots of poets and other writers who told me of their meetings with David and how he was such an influence in their own writing careers. I heard tales from bookshop owners who had stories about David Marcus. Some people I met knew him very well and I heard stories about him as a person and a friend.
The book also gave me access to a number of literary festivals and I had the opportunity to read my work at some of Ireland’s most prestigious festivals: The West Cork Literary Festival, the Hay Festival and the Belfast Book Festival to name only three. One of the poems, Mary Daly, gave me the opportunity to read at one of my favourite festivals: The Cork Spring Poetry Festival. I hope that one day I will be able to read there again. I also had the opportunity to read in my favourite independent bookshop, Books Upstairs twice in 2016. It was very special to put my hand on the physical copy of Jewtown for the very first time in that shop and read from it for the first time with Michael J Whelan and Rita Ann Higgins.
One of the more bizarre moments I had was reading in Waterstones in Cork. Following the closure of the South Terrace Synagogue, I wrote a poem that sneaked into the collection at the very end. It was about the synagogue’s “spiritual leader” Freddie Rosehill. I always read this poem at the end of a reading but I didn’t ever expect to read the poem to him. However, he showed up at the reading and I read the poem. When I asked him what he thought of it, he simply said, “very interesting.” When I started teaching, I got a similar response from the principal when my Christmas play was a bit left of centre so I take it, he was being polite. Freddie passed away towards the end of 2016.
I was interviewed on the radio a number of times in 2016. Don O’Mahoney interviewed me twice (once on radio) about Jewtown. These interviews were a great experience and really made me think a lot more about my collection. I also got interviewed by Radio One’s Poetry Programme and enjoyed the experience of being in the studio with Rick O’Shea. Dave Lordan was the researcher for the programme and the questions were tough!
Speaking of Dave Lordan, I was very touched that as well as being one of the poets who agreed to write a blurb for the back of the book, he selected Jewtown as his favourite poetry book of 2016. I am also very grateful to Grace Wells who also wrote a blurb but more than that, she wrote a wonderful speech for my launch and I am forever grateful for her support. Grace was at my side at the genesis of Jewtown,
In terms of competitions and publications, I had a much quieter year than 2015. I was long listed for one poetry competition and was published in Pankhearst, Bare Hands, The Stinging Fly, and the Penny Dreadful. I was especially pleased to finally get published in the Stinging Fly. It’s been a bit of an ambition for the writing group I work with. Speaking of which, my writing group had an eventful 2016 and I was pleased to read with them on a couple of occasions throughout the year.
It seems to be customary for some poets to bare all and reveal their rejections for the year so these are mine: I had a busy year with Jewtown so only submitted to magazines and journals 8 times in 2016. I had 4 poems accepted for publication but was rejected by 4 others. In terms of competitions, I entered 4 competitions and got longlisted in one. I didn’t feature in the others.
Finally, I was happy to do a bit of publishing with Rozz with Volume 2 of Sixteen Magazine launching in September. So far, we have published 4 issues, all based on the theme of colour. It’s an enjoyable hobby and interesting to see how things work from the other side of the publishing table. It’s not easy doling out rejection emails. It does soften the blow knowing that I get enough of them myself!