Per Petterson on death

Difficult to write about, as a reader I find I am usually left feeling bereft after I read about it.  Not because of the inherent fear of it but because someone else's interpretation of it is so far off the mark of my own.  Until I read this from "I Curse the River of Time" by Per Petterson. Heart-breaking.

"But when it came to dying, I was scared. Not of being dead, that I could not comprehend, to be nothing was impossible to grasp and therefore really nothing to be scared of, but dying itself I could not comprehend, the very instant when you know that now comes what you have always feared, and you suddenly realise that every chance of being the person you really wanted to be, is gone forever, and the one you were, is the one those around you remember. Then that must feel like someone's strong hands slowly tightening their grip around your neck until you can breath no more, and not at all as when a door is slowly pushed open and bright light comes streaming out from the inside and a woman or a man you have always known and always liked, maybe always loved, leans out and gently takes your hand and leads you in to a place of rest, so mild and so fine, from eternity to eternity."

All Ireland Poetry Day at the Irish Writers' Centre

I'll be reading at the All Ireland Poetry Day at the Irish Writers' Centre at 2.30 tomorrow.  You can catch the live stream here (from 10am to 5pm on Thursday 3rd October) a day-long live streaming of poetry by Ireland's finest poets.
Poetry Ireland will host a six hour live stream from the Irish Writers' Centre in Parnell Square, Dublin, which will feature readings by Dermot Bolger, Peter Sirr, Theo Dorgan and Enda Wyley, among many others, as well as a panel discussion involving the new Ireland Chair of Poetry, Paula Meehan.
Other organisations and groups around the country will be part of the live transmission as they upload their own films of events in their own areas. The live stream will also feature a special tribute to Seamus Heaney by Dublin school childen, as well as film of Brendan Kennelly reading his poetry. .
Venue: Irish Writers Centre, Parnell Square, D1
Time: Thursday @ 10.00am - 4.00pm

Culture Night 2013

This year I had the opportunity to read a poem for Culture Night at the Poetry Ireland open mic night in the beautiful surroundings of The Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. I read my shortlisted poem for the Poetry Ireland Trocaire Poetry Competition as well as a short listed poem from a Nigerian entrant who couldn't be there on the evening. The theme for the competition was Today's Children, Tomorrow's World. The booklet with all of the winners and shortlistees (!) is due out shortly so keep an eye out for it. The competition is just about to roll around again so check back here for submission details.
In spite of my cold I managed to (just about ... ) get through it! You'll find me at about 40 mins in   but all the poets who partook in the evening are worth a listen.

Mark Cooper Pamphlet "The Inner Sea"

The multi-talented Mark Cooper has some great poems in this beautiful little pamphlet alongside Joe Franklin and Hugh Greasley. I am biased because its theme is the sea, my most favourite thing of all. Have a read of it here.

Black, Strong and Sweet Poetry Series

My poem up on the board in Nick's coffee house in Ranelagh for one week 08/07-14/07 !

Niamh MacAlister – That Night

on the blog   the whole series here  

That night
I felt your breathing stomach in my back.
Balloons of breath rose up to the ceiling,
with only strings of street light shining in
to pull them back down to me.

*

Describe your style (this could be limited to your writing style, or style, in whatever sense of the word you’d like to conceive it in, and how that relates to you as a writer).
Less is more. My preference is for using words without subterfuge. The simplest things are always the best; the favourite pair of jeans that fit perfectly, delicious food, a great glass of wine, words that are said when they are truly meant. I always endeavour to remove what isn’t essential. Why make life difficult?

What do you feel makes a poem ready for consumption by others?
I’m not sure that a poem is every really finished in the more traditional sense of the word. Although I know I’ve reached the end of the road with it when there is nothing left to change. In that way it tells me when it’s ready. It’s in the shape it will always be in, for better or worse.

A good cup of coffee has the power to seduce.  What role does seduction play in your writing (i.e. – is it a theme in your work? Do you seduce yourself into the act of writing?  Or does the seduction come when someone is drawn to your work – are you out to seduce poetry readers?  Does seduction have some other role entirely vis-à-vis your work, or, does it have no role at all?)
Tough question. I will admit that I sometimes have to seduce myself into writing by using the old fashioned charm offensive of a glass of red vino. Chocolate can work just as well. Because sometimes it’s scary to go to the place you are meant to be; on the edge of things in the quietness. Small comforts help. But always trying to step up to the mark with honesty is seductive.



At this moment in poems and writing, who’s writing the poems you like to read? 
A good poem, like a good poet, is a rare and subjective thing.  No point in listing all the writers that rock my creative world so instead I’ll just name Denise Levertov. One of the poets that started me off on this mad journey.

Where do you do your writing?  How important is ‘place’ and a sense of ‘space’ for a writer? 
Writing, for me, is a private affair.  When I was doing my post-grad I had a room in halls. My entire life, my bed and my desk were in the same room. It set a precedent. Where I live now is the same. So I guess I tend to feel more comfortable writing in a ‘cell’ like situation.



Stevie Smith once said that “poetry never has any kindness at all”.  How true do you think this is?
Never thought about it before. Sometimes truth is less kind than fiction that’s for sure. But isn’t the act of sharing a poem a generous one? Likewise the act of submitting to its vision?

When it comes to writing poems, and how events are captured on the page, do you think it is better for the poet to suffer from excruciatingly good memory, or excruciatingly bad?  (i.e. what role does the truth have in writing a ‘good’ poem?)
In true poet form shouldn’t I say that the key word here is suffer not memory?! A poem is only a version of events and more often than not an embellished one.  And really, does it even matter? Because whose version of the truth is the truth?

Describe the last time you had a really stunning cup of coffee (or tea).
The best is yet to come.

Black, Strong, or Sweet?
Black and Strong. Always.

*

Niamh MacAlister completed a Masters Degree in Creative Writing at the University of St Andrews, Scotland with the assistance of The Arts Council of Ireland.  She has been selected as a ‘New and Emerging Poet’ for the Poetry Ireland Introductions Series and also for the Lonely Voice Short Story Introductions.  She was recently shortlisted for the Hennessy New Irish Writing Award in the First Fiction category.  She has published poetry in The Stinging Fly, Raft, The Moth and Washington Square Review. She completed a residency at the Cill Rialaig Project in 2012.

Catherine Dunne wins the International Prize of the Giovanni Boccaccio Literary Awards

Catherine Dunne's  'THE THINGS WE KNOW NOW' has won the International Prize of the Giovanni Boccaccio Literary Awards, just announced yesterday.


The Press Release stated:
... "Catherine Dunne’s novel ‘The Things We Know Now’, Macmillan (‘Quel che ora sappiamo’, Guanda) is the winner of the International Literature Prize of the 32nd Giovanni Boccaccio Literary Awards.
This year’s prize celebrates the 700th anniversary of the great Italian novelist’s birthday: Giovanni Boccaccio was born in Certaldo, Florence, in 1313. In her imaginative exploration of the most painful grief that anyone can endure – the loss of a child through suicide – Dunne excavates the subtleties of both the inexplicable and the unspeakable. She illuminates that lack of understanding and awareness that can inhabit even the strongest and closest of our human relationships."

Follow her on twitter

Buy 'the things we know now'

her debut novel 'in the beginning' has just become available as a kindle download here.

at work ...

the monday to friday view :