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“On America” and Other Poems
Trasna is pleased to announce that poet Dan Murphy will join its team of editors. This week we feature four of his poems. Whether it’s a “rusty gate in a field of rock,” or “the cream cheese on your cheek,” Murphy explores the expansive to the intimate.
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‘Only Connect’ – An Anthology of Poetry Written During the Pandemic
This week on Trasna we feature a new publication by Beir Bua Press, ‘Only Connect,’ an anthology of poetry and prose written during the pandemic and shared weekly with a group of writers on Zoom sessions led by Margaret O’Brien
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Daniel Wade reads from ‘A Land Without Wolves’
Daniel Wade, award-winning playwright, poet, essayist, and novelist, is making his second appearance in Trasna this week. Following his memorable tribute to poet Dermot Healy, last year, Dublin-born Wade has been actively pursuing his writing career and is now celebrating the release of his historical novel, A Land Without Wolves.
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“Reshaping the Light” by Breda Joyce
Autumn is the season that embraces reflection: thoughtful persons give thanks for their harvest even as they mourn the [human] losses that befell them during the time past. In the poems she reads for Trasna, works from her newly published collection Reshaping the Light.
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“Even the Heather Bled” by Joe McGowan
On the morning of Wednesday September 20th 1922 – the closing months of the Irish Civil War – soldiers of the Freestate army shot dead six anti-Treaty Volunteers atop Sligo’s Benbulben Mountain. How did it come about?
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“Wasp on the Prayer Flag” a Collection of Haiku Poetry by Maeve O’Sullivan
Back from its extended summer break, Trasna is please to present the latest publication from poet Maeve O’Sullivan, Wasp on the Prayer Flag. This is Maeve’s fifth collection with Alba Publishing. It chronicles the years from 2018-2021 in haiku and senryu. Rooted in Ireland and its varied landscapes, with some ‘postcards’ from the UK and Europe, this collection celebrates the inspiration and consolation of nature and the durability of human connections. In this volume, O’Sullivan has been praised for her keen eye, lightness of touch, and depth of feeling. While the subject of O’Sullivan’s previous volume, Elsewhere, centered on an extensive trip to 13 countries, much of her current volume explores her native Ireland.…
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Trasna writers in The Lowell Review 2021
The Lowell Review Several writers featured in Trasna (2020) have been included in a new annual publication, The Lowell Review. Copies of The Lowell Review are available for purchase, or online through Richardhowe.com. Below are selections from those Trasna pieces included in the 2021 edition with selections from 2020. We look forward to the 2022 volume with pieces from this year. The belated discovery of a role-model: Nessa O’Mahony on Eavan Boland “… Perhaps I’m mis-remembering. The next reading of hers I do recall was a much smaller affair in the back-garden of a bookshop in the leafy Dublin suburb of Rathgar. Eavan was reading the poem, ‘The Black Lace Fan My Mother…
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‘A Morning Walk’ from “Intimate City: Dublin Essays” by Peter Sirr
Featured in today’s Irish Times is a collection of essays by prize-winning poet, Peter Sirr: “Intimate City: Dublin Essays.” This week, Trasna is pleased to present ‘A morning walk,’ one of the essays from this brilliant collection. Sirr’s essays explore Dublin’s past and present; travel its narrow lanes; meditate on its earliest map; and contemplate the impact a place can have on those who live there. In one of his essays ‘Shirts for Books,’ Sirr discusses the loss of a landmark bookshop: “The death of a bookshop always hits hard. There are never that many of them to begin with and they are rarely replaced, so that one more opportunity…
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Felicity Hayes-McCoy and “The Year of Lost and Found”
Felicity Hayes-McCoy’s latest novel, “The Year of Lost and Found,” again takes place on Ireland’s fictional Finfarran peninsula. It is a novel about ordinary people with extraordinary secrets. Set in 2018, it takes place in the lead-up to the year of Ireland’s Civil War commemorations, and explores shared, hidden, and revealed family memories. Warmth and humour are central to Felicity Hayes-McCoy’s storytelling, which critics have compared to Maeve Binchy’s, and, coincidentally, the book’s sensitive portrayal of physical and emotional isolation from family will resonate with readers after a year of lockdown. In discussing her latest novel, Hayes-McCoy says “What’s concealed and revealed in Irish life has always fascinated me, particularly…
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Linda Ibbotson, “Homage to Kinsale” and Other Writings
As we reach mid-June with the fervor to celebrate the season and enjoy beloved places, Trasna welcomes Linda Ibbotson and her tribute to the beauty of the coastal town Kinsale, to the legacy of Irish culture, and her creative collaboration with Russian pianist and composer Arsentiy Kharitonov. A gifted poet and lyricist, whose artwork and photographs have won acclaim, Ibbotson shares her spirit of renewal in both the present and the past with readers. Notes From an Empty Room Collaboration with Arsentiy Kharitonov As a classical piano lover, I was delighted when Russian pianist and composer Arsentiy Kharitonov emailed a composition to me and invited me (if it inspired me)…
