Poet Ria Collins will launch her first book, a collection of haiku and senryu poetry, next Thursday, March 12, at 6pm, in Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop.
Based in Maree, Oranmore, Collins will launch Shaping Darkness, featuring her short-verse poems written in Japanese style. These haiku and senryu follow the same structure, with three lines of unrhymed verse. A haiku tries to paint vivid pictures of the natural world, while senryu touch on human emotions.
Collins, who worked as a Director of Nursing in Dublin for many years, grew up in West Cork, but now lives in Maree/Oranmore. She has published works in Skylight 47, Crannóg, A New Ulster, The Bangor Literary Journal, and Poethead. For the last six years, she has concentrated on haiku.
Her work has been published in international journals in the United States, South America, Tasmania, Europe, Britain and Ireland.
Award-winning Tipperary poet, author and editor Sean O’Connor will introduce the book at the famed Middle Street bookshop next week.
O’Connor, who will introduce the book, is the founding editor of The Haibun Journal, a biannual print publication dedicated to the haibun literary form, which blends prose and haiku. His work has been widely published, translated and anthologised worldwide. O’Connor won the HSA Merit Book Award for Best Haibun Book 2021 for Fragmentation.
