Poetry as truth-teller. Poetry Ireland Review 137 edited by Gerald Dawe is available for pre-sale

15th September 2022

Issue 137 of Poetry Ireland Review, edited by Gerald Dawe, is now available for pre-sale.  The issue features new poems from Moya Cannon, Gustav Parker Hibbett, Shannon Kuta Kelly, Afric McGlinchey, Tomás de Faoite, Trudie Gorman, Simon Ó Faoláin, Roan Ellis-O’Neill, Sihle Ntuli, and many others. 

In the issue’s editorial Gerald Dawe recognises the “freight of increasing anxiety down our street.” The current war in Ukraine, the Covid pandemic and the ongoing impact of Brexit have led to increased social and economic hardships. Throughout these unfolding tragedies, poetry remains the truth-teller.  

“Poetry picks up these tensions in unpredictable ways but one of the things many of the poems included in this issue share, is an unmissable sense of the poet facing up to their world with fortitude and belief in the power of language to challenge falsehood and the corruption of political power for ill-conceived and undemocratic ends. For sure, poetry entertains alternatives; but not the kind of alternative ‘facts’ which have led some people into vengeful unreality. Poetry is a truth-teller.” Gerald Dawe (Poetry Ireland Review 137, Editorial)

The review section includes new collections from Colette Bryce, Dense Reilly, Marcus Mac Conghail, Billy Collins, and Colm Tóibín, with Vona Groarke reviewing Irish Women Poets Rediscovered. In the essays, Birgit McCone discusses Ukrainian poetry in context and Edna Longley examines poetry reviewing from 1900 to the present.

Day Trippers (2016) by Mick O’Dea features on the cover and interior images continue to spotlight the artist’s work.

Issue 137 is the second of three guest edited issues of Poetry Ireland Review this year. The three guest editors for 2022 are Colm Keegan, Gerald Dawe, and Nessa O’Mahony.

Poetry Ireland Review 137  is now available for pre-sale. Purchasers will receive their copies from Monday 19 September. 

Prices: Single copies of Poetry Ireland Review: €15.50 (Ireland & Northern Ireland); €17 (Rest of World); Subscribe for €38 a year (Ireland & Northern Ireland) – three issues; Subscribe for €43 a year (Rest of World) - three issues.

Copies will be available for purchase at the event Words by the Sea: Poetry Ireland Review, dlr LexIcon Gallery, Dún Laoghaire, Sunday 18 September, 4.30-5.30pm
Tickets; €8-10  

Ends.

For media enquiries, contact Clare O’Sullivan, Communications Manager of Poetry Ireland. Tel: 087 962 45548 or email comms@poetryireland.ie.

Poetry Ireland gratefully acknowledges the support of its principal funders The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon and The Arts Council of Northern Ireland. 

Notes to editor:

Poetry Ireland Review
Published three times a year, Poetry Ireland Review includes the work of both emerging and established Irish and international poets, essayists, critics and visual artists. It has a strong domestic and international subscription base and is also on sale in leading bookshops in Ireland and the UK, and as a single issue purchase from the Poetry Ireland website - https://www.poetryireland.ie/publications/poetry-ireland-review/

Professor Gerald Dawe
Gerald Dawe, the Belfast-born poet, has published ten collections of poetry including, most recently, The Last Peacock (Gallery, 2019) and numerous volumes of essays, including Dreaming of Home: Seven Irish Writers (Peter Lang, 2022). He has edited and co-edited several works of Irish poets including Ethna Mac Carthy Poems (with Eoin O'Brien, Lilliput Press, 2019).

He taught at the University of Galway (1977-1987) and Trinity College Dublin (1988-2017) and was visiting professor in various universities in the US as well as holding a number of writing residencies in UK and Europe. With the late Brendan Kennelly he established at Trinity College the first master's programme in creative writing offered by an Irish University. He lives in Dun Laoghaire, County Dublin.

'A deeply impressive body of work, [Dawe's] poems are rooted, exploring delicately and exquisitely what it is to be alive and living in this world. A supreme and calm assurance, again and again, pitch perfect in tone and form’ David Park (novelist).