I take special pleasure in announcing the publication of my new poetry collection, enditem., published with Beir Bua Press on New Year’s Day of this year. It’s not every year, let alone every day, that I have the good luck to publish a collection, and so I take it as an auspicious occasion which I am happy to share here. So forgive me if I put research news on hold for this!
A new poetry collection from a troubled corpus
The collection is particular, stemming from a period when, in order to make ends meet, I worked as a freelance journalist covering European affairs. It was a time in which the European continent and its political union were entering into overlapping crises, and the rhetoric of leaders and political actors reached a pitch that felt palpable.
In my reporting, I was generally called upon to write what was said, what was voted upon, what actions were being taken. Over time and increasingly, it was work that made me feel increasingly ineffectual and uncomfortable with my ambiguous position. How many times had I written and reported that a European representative had declared it was time to take action?
The text in enditem. is drawn from a reworking of the corpus of my writing from that time – ripped up, rewound, regurgitated – using adapted modernist and avant garde techniques in order to create poems that, I think, address the ambiguity in contemporary politics and the ways we manage crisis. In this way, I see the book as both testimony and commitment.
A poem from the book
Global economic forecast optimistic despite uncertainty 130 people dead, & in July, which she confirmed. the much loved a bad future for the next. what can companies do? its wish to define itself today as well as in screenings of Poltergeist, because from construction, lighting, & favour of a non-binding motion, the crowd lifted signs, consulates, the common good, he explained, optimistic about the long & repeated. despite that volatility, uncertainties are not for future growth, I believe. another critical is an assassination slamming its doors— the spokesperson held particular interests for debate: “let’s not fool living in poverty & dying for law enforcement purposes.” reminded of their reforms put forward in the context of the battle to build his most regular activity, walls, a long address to the pharmaceutical companies showed how the oil price & other talents have 15 months to transpose men originating from Sudan. he observed that many people since the end of the cold war work with the archbishop but also through the original report on mass violence & persecution, worried parliamentarians. uncertainties which persist with other aircraft & in order to put an end to that we look at robot incident disappointment, he began somewhere, enditem. borders, terrorist threats, procedures to observe when the University of Paris migrants sank off the coast for the measurement of incentives given through the French writings. “we are rather satisfied, investment bank Goldman Sachs has struggled under steep explosives trafficking, as for many it represents the persistent patterns of the engines of integration.”
Bringing victory
It makes me very happy that I can bring enditem. to print with Beir Bua Press, a young and exciting Irish publisher of experimental literature and poetry.
I admire the writers Beir Bua has been publishing, and working with founding editor Michelle Moloney King has been a great experience. Besides allowing me to present the poetry in exactly the form I wished, King created a visual poem in response to my work, the wild, gorgeous imagery that graces the cover.
Beir Bua is Irish for bring victory, and if we reinterpret that statement away from war and competition, I think it’s exactly the sign under which I most want to publish now. Bring success, bring joy, bring meaning, bring your work. This is what I hear, and one of many reasons I decided to go with this publisher.
Where to buy the book
Copies of enditem. are available for global distribution thanks to the Lulu platform. It will soon be available on Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, and other major online retailers, but it does support Beir Bua Press more to order directly from Lulu.com.
Please check out the book listing on the press website!
A free online book launch
To celebrate the launch, I will be reading on Friday, the 27th of January, at 8pm GMT with fellow Beir Bua Press poet Oisín Breen, who also published a new book this month.
Tickets are free and everyone is welcome, so I would be very happy for you to join us.