Launch of Special Irish Edition at Belfast Book Festival

Thanks to Maria McManus, and Keith Acheson for ideas, invitation and welcome. It was a privilege to create journals for the festival and to hear so many of the poets, each with their distinctive voice and writerly concerns: John Mee, Heather Richardson, Stephanie Conn, Therese Kieran, Michael Farry, Annette Skade, Moyra Donaldson, Attracta Fahy, Paul Jeffcutt, Olive Broderick, Georgi Gill, Daragh Breen and Jane Robinson. I loved the event, was delighted to take away collections to read back here (I posted some thoughts about Stephanie Conn's wonderful, 'Island', and John Mee's, 'From the Extinct', and will add thoughts about Daragh Breen's otherworldly, 'What the wolf heard' which is so arresting. 

We were also able to hear some work from poets who were out of the country or delayed at the last minute*. Having a small part in the festival felt like a wonderful new tributary for Coast to Coast to Coast, the first Special Edition and the first with a launch outside of Liverpool.

*Nessa O’Mahony, Keith Payne, Michael Ray, James Meredith, Michael Sheehan, Karen McDonnell and Emma McKervey

Big thanks to Gaynor Kane for sharing photos of many of the poets reading... is féidir linn a chéile aris