Search Results for 'Jessie Lendennie'

When Fred Johnston was appointed as literary officer in the embryonic Galway Arts Centre, he was asked, on his first day, if he had any plans. He told the then director Dick Donoghue of a dream he had ever since reading Daniel Corkery’s book Hidden Ireland in which the author discussed how ‘courts of poetry’ which had been set up after the Flight of the Earls where poets would gather and recite their works. Fred’s idea was to establish such a court that would introduce international, national and local poets to a Galway audience, a sacred place for the celebration of poetry where it might sing again to big audiences. He did not want poetry to constitute a cultural hidden Ireland.

THE ANNUAL Over The Edge Poetry Book Showcase, takes place in Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop, Middle Street, on Friday February 11 at 6pm.

OF LATE, it has been in vogue for male publishers to publish young women poets. Some people think this has something to do with feminism. However, male publishers tend to be less interested in emerging woman poets over 40 – an age when many women, having raised families, begin seriously writing poems.

THERE IS a memory, somewhat hazy, probably romanticised, of the shop door opening one morning in the early eighties, and a young, statuesque, lady sailing in, wearing a flowing colourful cloak, somewhat reminiscent of an Adrienne Monnier or a Sylvia Beach.

STARTING IN the early seventies and continuing for about 20 years, there was a continuous migration into Galway of extraordinary “blow ins” whose genius and drive transfigured the cultural life of the city.