0 Comments
We just added a fourth color to our map: an orange marker.
We discovered the wonderful Archive of Badilisha Poetry X-Change and we can't wait to share these wonderful poets' voices with you. This is what they do: "Badilisha Poetry X-Change has archived over 350 African poets from 22 different countries from both the continent and the global African Diaspora. Each week, two new poets are featured on the website and via podcasts. These poets represent a broad range of voices, genres and language, thereby reflecting contemporary trends and evolutions in the medium along with some of the historic giants of African poetry. Our extensive network of Pan-African poets and poetry organisations enables us to create much-needed exposure and viable opportunities for Africa’s poets. Badilisha Poetry is a project of the Africa Centre. The Africa Centre is a physical entity as well as an ongoing philosophical journey that explores how Pan-African cultural practice can be a catalyst for social change. The Africa Centre was established in 2005 as an international centre for creativity, artistic excellence and intellectual engagement. Based in Cape Town, South Africa, the Africa Centre’s social innovations extend across the African continent." And this is why they do it: "Africans have limited access to the vast poetic work of both historical and contemporary African poets. There has never been an archive of these poets’ work that is both expansive and easily accessible. This means that many Africans are not inspired and influenced by their own writers and poets – negatively impacting their personal growth, identity, development and sense of place. In comparison to their counterparts on other continents, African poets receive little exposure for their work and few viable career opportunities. Both factors are imperative to their development as artists. For instance, of all the published books in the world, the works of African authors comprise only two percent. This imbalance exists for a myriad of reasons, but can to a large extent be attributed to the reality that both within Africa and beyond, reading and listening to African voices is not prioritised." On the Poetry Sound Library we have uploaded the voice of: Mirna Kabwe , Mwila Mambwe, Letang Selepe and many more will be available soon (orange marker). Suggestion to users: if you wish to listen only to a category of poets just select one color and deselect All at the bottom of the page. Richard Eberhart
"Poetry is a maneuvering of ideas, a spectacular pleasure, achievement and mastery of intractable material, not less than an attempt to move the world, to order the chaos of man, insofar as one is able. Love, harmony, order; poise, precision, new worlds."
We celebrate New Year's Day with eight powerful voices from Ireland and Northern Ireland:
Iggy McGovern, The Mathematical Barman Born in 1948 in Coleraine. Since 1979 he has resided in Dublin, where he lectured in Physics at Trinity College until retirement in 2013. He has published two collections of poetry with Dedalus Press, The King of Suburbia (2005) and Safe House (2010). He edited the anthology 20|12: Twenty Irish Poets Respond to Science in Twelve Lines (Dedalus/Quaternia. 2012). Awards include The Hennessy Award for Poetry and The Glen Dimplex New Writers Award for Poetry. His most recent publication is A Mystic Dream of 4, a poetic biography of William Rowan Hamilton (Quaternia. 2013).PERSONAL STATEMENT "My poetry is characterised by form & rhyme and humour; it also reflects my professional career as a physicist. I am interested in exploring the common ground between Science and Literature."REVIEW EXCERPT “Light, rarely lightweight, McGovern’s voice is very much his own … unaffectedly honest, instructive and entertaining” — Eamon Grennan, The Irish Times, 2011 Eleanor Hooker, Encryptedl Eeanor Hooker was born in Tipperary in 1963. She lived in the UK for many years before returning to live in Tipperary. Her first collection, The Shadow Owner’s Companion (2012), was shortlisted for the Strong/Shine Award for best first collection. She has won the Trocaire/Poetry Ireland Poetry Competition, the Irish Writers Centre’s Francis X Buckley Flash Fiction competition, awarded 2nd place WOW! Poetry Prize, joint 2nd Prize in the William Trevor/Elizabeth Bowen International Short Story Competition. Her poems have been listed for the Troubadour Poetry Prize (UK), Pushcart Prize (USA), Gregory O'Donoghue International Poetry Prize, Listowel Original Short Poem. Her poetry has been published in journals including: Poetry Ireland Review, POETRY (Chicago) Agenda, The Stinging Fly, The SHOp, The Moth, POEM, The Irish Times, Irish Examiner and broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1. Magdalena Chojnowska translated five of Eleanor’s poems for the Polish journal artPAPIER. Eleanor has a BA (Hons 1st) Open University, an MA (Hons) Cultural History, University of Northumbria, an MPhil in Creative Writing (Distinction) from Trinity College, Dublin. She is Programme Curator for the Dromineer Literary Festival and helm for Lough Derg RNLI Lifeboat. Her second collection A Tug of Blue will be published in 2016. (www.eleanorhooker.com)"The Shadow Owner’s Companion is “teeming with both major and minor poems of really notable excellence and quirky intelligence… Hooker has a brilliantly nutured and culturally stretched imagination...” — Thomas McCarthy, Poetry Ireland Review Patrick Deeley, Lydia Jumped Patrick Deeley was born in the townland of Foxhall, outside Loughrea, Co. Galway, in 1953. He worked as a primary teacher, and later as administrative principal, in Ballyfermot until 2012. He has published six collections of poems with Dedalus Press: Intimate Strangers (1986), Names for Love (1990), Turane: The Hidden Village (1995), Decoding Samara (2000), The Bones of Creation (2008), and Groundswell: New and Selected Poems (2013). In addition his poems have appeared in many leading literary outlets in Ireland, UK, USA, Canada and Australia over the past thirty five years. They’ve also been translated to French, Italian and other languages, as well as appearing in approximately fifty anthologies. His poem ‘Woodman’ was chosen as one of ‘Ireland’s 100 Favourite Poems’ in a survey organised by The Irish Times, and his most recent poetry awards include the WOW2 and The Dermot Healy International Poetry Prize. His novel for young people, The Lost Orchard (O’Brien Press), won the Eilís Dillon Award and a Bisto Book of the Year Award in 2001. His memoir, The Hurley Maker’s Son (2016), is published in the UK and Ireland by Transworld. He served on the Board of Poetry Ireland from 1984 to 1989."I try for poems that are pertinent to what’s happening now in the world, that are sturdy but light on their feet, plain-spoken but memorable. There’s still room for imagery and metaphor, for the old poetic devices – even onomatopoeia – and I hold to these regardless of what the fashionistas may say." Elaine Cosgrove, Surfing at Streedagh Strand Elaine Cosgrove was born in Sligo in 1985. Her poems have been published in The Stinging Fly, The Penny Dreadful, The Bohemyth and by New Binary Press among others. Her work was selected for the anthology Best New British & Irish Poets (Eyewear Publishing, 2017), and was longlisted for the 2016 London Magazine Poetry Prize. She has an M.Phil. in Creative Writing from Trinity College, Dublin. Transmissions is her debut collection. Enda Wyley, The Painter on his bike Enda Wyley has published five collections of poetry, most recently Borrowed Space, New and Selected Poems, Dedalus Press. A sixth collection is forthcoming. She has been the inaugural winner of the Vincent Buckley Poetry Prize and the recipient of a Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship. She is a member of Aosdána. ‘Her imagery, honesty and insight make this a first rate work.’ Poetry Ireland Review. She was born in Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin 1966 and currently lives in Dublin. She has published five collections of poetry: Eating Baby Jesus (1993), Socrates in the Garden (1998), Poems for Breakfast ( 2004), To Wake to This (2009), and Borrowed Space, New and Selected Poems (2014). Her poetry has been widely broadcast, translated and anthologised including in The Harvard Anthology of Modern Irish Poetry, USA (2010), The Wake Forest Book of Irish Women Poets, USA (2011), Femmes d'Irlande en Poésie, 1973-2013, ed Clíona Ní Ríordáin, and Lines of Vision, The National Gallery of Ireland, 2014. She holds a B.Ed with a distinction in English Literature, was the recipient of an M.A in Creative Writing from Lancaster University, was the inaugural winner of the Vincent Buckley Poetry Prize and has received many Arts Council Literature Bursaries for her writing.In 2014 she was the recipient of a Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship for her poetry. In recent years she has been Poet- at -Work in the Coombe Maternity Hospital, Dublin and Writer in Residence at The Marino Institute of Education, Dublin. Enda Wyley’s books for children from O'Brien Press are Boo and Bear and The Silver Notebook. Her book I Won’t Go to China! was awarded a Reading Association of Ireland Special Merit Award 2011. Enda Wyley was elected to Aosdána in March 2015.REVIEW EXCERPT "… it is the trembling uncertainties of love itself that Wyley captures here in what may well become a heart-book for lovers old and new to carry in their jeans pocket." — Fred Johnston, on Poems for Breakfast, in Books Ireland John Kelly, Pike John Kelly was born in Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh. His poetry has been published in numerous journals and anthologies including The New Younger Irish Poets (Blackstaff Press, ed. Gerald Dawe). A novel, From Out of The City was shortlisted for Novel of the Year at the Bord Gáis Book Awards, and a radio play, The Pipes, was broadcast by RTÉ. He lives in Dublin where he works in broadcasting. Notions (Dedalus Press, October 2018) is his first collection. Catherine Ann Cullen, Naming a bridge Catherine Ann Cullen was born in Drogheda, Co. Louth and is a graduate of the M.Phil in Creative Writing at Trinity College Dublin. She has published two previous volumes of poems, A Bone in My Throat (2007) and Strange Familiar (2013), while her verse- stories for children, The Magical, Mystical, Marvelous Coat (2001) and Thirsty Baby (2003), have been published in the US, the former winning a gold award for Poetry and Folklore from the American Parents Association. She has made a number of documentaries and a series about food for RTÉ Radio 1 and has produced current affairs, arts and features. Mark Roper, After The Fall' is from Bindweed Mark Roper’s latest collection Bindweed, Dedalus Press (2017), was shortlisted for The Irish Times Poetry Now Award. A Gather of Shadow (2012) was also shortlisted for that Award and won the Michael Hartnett Award in 2014. He has co-authored 3 books with photographer Paddy Dwan, and has written librettos for two operas composed by Eric Sweeney. Listen to some major American voices lost in 2018. Poetry Sound Library believes that poets' voices are immortal. You can listen to them on Poetry Sound Library.
Karin Maria Boye (1900-1941) a Swedish poet and novelist. In Sweden she is acclaimed as a poet, but internationally she is best known for the dystopian science fiction novel Kallocain (1940). She was added to the Poetry Sound Library map on December 16th, an Audio recording of her Poem "Önskan". I must say that to be able to listen to Karin Boye's voice has been a very deep experience for me. I could see with her eyes and feel with her sould. I suggest you to also read about her life. I found a very detailed page about Boye on Nordic Women Literarure. Here's some info: "Karin Boye was born in Gothenburg and from 1909 grew up in Huddinge outside Stockholm. Her father was a civil engineer; she herself completed her schooling at Åhlinska girls’ school, went on to qualify as a teacher in 1921, and graduated in 1928 after studying in Uppsala and at Stockholm University. She earned a living as a writer and critic for newspapers such as Social-Demokraten and Arbetet, was a member of the committee and editorial team of the far-left movement Clarté from 1926 to 1932, and was also attached to the editorial committee of the new modernist periodical Spektrum, 1931-1932. In 1932 she underwent psychoanalysis in Berlin. She was married to Leif Björk from 1929 to 1931, but the couple never had children, and from 1932 to 1941 she lived together with the young German Jew Margot Hanel from Berlin. In April 1941 Karin Boye committed suicide. Her debut collection Moln, 1922, which like her following works Gömda land, 1924, and Härdarna, 1927, had a classic, clear form and a particular rhythm, mirrored the personality of an idealist and aesthete. Beginning with her poetry collection För trädets skull, 1935, she changed to an advanced, modernist style of poetry with imagery characterised by myth and depth psychology. This collection, albeit misunderstood by the traditionally-minded literary critics of the time, is now considered to be one of Sweden’s most brilliant, modernist works of poetry. Her debut prose work Astarte, 1931, is a Marxist-inspired piece questioning capitalist consumerist ideology and the perception of women. In her autobiographical work Kris, 1934, she considers lesbianism, using the form of existentialist discussion. The pinnacle of her writing, however, is Kallocain, 1940, which offers a terrifying vision of the future, of a world destroyed by war between superpowers and atomic weapons. Karin Boye has often been seen as a starry-eyed aesthete preoccupied by the mysteries of her own personality; however, in her poetry, essays, and works as a critic she showed herself to be an author who was highly aware of her period and a political radical who took up the struggle against prejudice, the oppression of women, war, and dictatorship. She was strongly influenced by Elin Wägner and those connected with the periodical Tidevarvet. Gallery: Karin Boye's Watercolors Karin Boye painted a number of water-colours especially in her teens. They have attracted much attention at several exhibitions, for instance at Waldemarsudde in Stockholm. Some of the water-colours reflect subjects which also occur in her written work. They are privately owned (by Ulf Boye, her brother). Further readings: Amanda Doxtater: "Women readers, food and the cunsumption of text: Karin Boye's Kris and Monika Fagerholm's Diva" in Gender, power, text: Nordic culture in the twentieth century, 2004 Paulina Helgeson: "Karin Boye: posthumous excuses" in: Scandinavica, (40), 2001 Ellen Mortensen: "'All that is nameless and new': exploring queer paths in Karin Boye's poetry" in: Scandinavica (40), 2001 Hiromi Itō 伊藤 比呂美 is on Poetry Sound Map. Listen to her mesmerizing voice on the map. Her voice is like exploring a wood at night, finding a fire while surrounded by snow. We transformed her voice into this painting to represent the ‘shamaness of poetry’, Hiromi Itō, a defining force in Japan’s literary world. "When Hiromi Itō started writing about controversial feminist subjects, such as her sexuality, her menstruation, and her uterus, her father expressed his acceptance but asked her not to continue for the sake of her mother – who in turn did the same. But Itō continued nonetheless, writing about all aspects of her own body – including the sexual organs – in the same way as if she was “simply writing about her hands.” In response to the male-dominated manga she had read, she wanted to be at the center of her writing as ‘the hero.’ Since then, Itō has continued to write honestly about her experiences, like in the famous poem ‘Killing Kanoko’, where she describes how she struggled with postpartum depression – a subject which not many addressed at that time: “When I was holding Kanoko, I was thinking: If I drop her now, she will cry… stuff like that.” Hiromi Itō (b. 1955) is a considered one of contemporary Japan’s most important writers, and has written several poetry collections, novels and essays. Itō is known for writing about subjects such as female sexuality, menstruation, pregnancy as well as the fantasy of killing one’s newborn child. Her many collections of poetry include ‘Killing Kanoko’ (2009) and ‘Wild Grass on the Riverbank’ (2015). Itō is the recipient of major literary awards such as the Noma Literary Prize (1999) and the Tamaki Jun Prize (2006). Hiromi Itō was interviewed by Christian Lund at the Louisiana Literature festival at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark in August 2018." ( Cit. Interview to Lousiana Channel) |
Giovanna IorioPoet, sound artist & Founder of the Poetry Sound Library. Archives
January 2020
Categories |