Some Days The Bird

Back in September, when Trasna released its Fall 2022 issue, we were delighted to include among the work a unique collaboration between American poet Heather Bourbeau and Irish-Australian poet Anne Casey. Over the course of a full year, each poet had written a poem to the other in alternating weeks. What resulted was a wonderful collection of 52 poems in conversation with each other from across the globe and seasons. You can read about the genesis for this project in an Irish Times interview.

With gratitude to Heather and Anne, we include below their readings of the two poems published here in Trasna, and invite you to order their collection at Barnes & Noble. The book was officially launched in the U.S. by Beltway Editions on December 2nd.

Anne Casey reads her poem, “Evensong,” published in Trasna, Fall 2022

Heather Bourbeau reads her poem, “Congregation,” published in Trasna, Fall 2022

Heather Bourbeau’s work has appeared in 100 Word Story, Alaska Quarterly Review, The Kenyon Review, Meridian, and The Stockholm Review of Literature. She was a contributing writer to Not On Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond with Don Cheadle and John Prendergast. She has worked with various UN agencies, including the UN peacekeeping mission in Liberia and UNICEF Somalia. Her forthcoming collection “Monarch” (Cornerstone Press, 2023) is a poetic memoir of overlooked histories from the American West. Her most recent collection is a poetry conversation with Irish-Australian poet Anne Casey, Some Days The Bird, which includes “Congregation.” 

Website: heatherbourbeau.com Twitter: @hfbourbeau

Anne Casey is an Irish poet/writer living in Australia and author of five poetry collections. A journalist, magazine editor, legal author and media communications director for 30 years, her work ranks in The Irish Times’ Most Read and is widely published and anthologised internationally. Anne has won literary prizes in Ireland, the UK, the USA, Canada, Hong Kong and Australia, most recently American Writers Review 2021 and the 2021 iWoman Global Award for Literature. A law graduate from UCD, she is the recipient of an Australian Government Scholarship and a bursary for her PhD examining The Second-Wave Impact in Australia of the Great Irish Famine at the University of Technology Sydney. 

Website: anne-casey.com  Twitter: @1annecasey.