The Desmond O'Grady Memorial Reading 2023 - Wed 19th April 7.30pm
Schedule
Wed Apr 19 2023 at 07:30 pm
Location
The People's Museum of Limerick | Limerick, LK
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The Limerick Writers’ CentrePresents
As part of April is Poetry Month in Limerick 2023
The Desmond O’Grady Memorial Reading
Wed 19th April at The People’s Museum of Limerick, Pery Square. Start 7.30pm
This reading commemorates the late Limerick poet Desmond O’Grady. O'Grady, was born in Limerick in 1935, started writing poetry in his teens. This early work was strongly influenced by TS Eliot and Ezra Pound, whose poems he encountered at weekly meetings of the Limerick Poetry Circle in the White House Bar. At the age of 19 he moved to Paris to teach English at the Berlitz School and to immerse himself in the artistic life of the city. He met Picasso, moved in the same circles as Beckett and, in 1956, got to know friends of Joyce and published his first book, Chords and Orchestrations, with the financial assistance of his admirers at home in Limerick.
Desmond O'Grady was unusual among Irish poets of his generation for both his interest in modernist experimentation and his immersion in the poetry of other cultures. He was, in the true sense, a citizen of world poetry.
Tonight our guests readers are;
Jamie O’Halloran, Ciaran O’Driscoll and Eleanor Hooker;
Eleanor Hooker is the judge of the Desmond O’Grady International Poetry Competition for this year and he will announce the winner of this year’s competition after the reading.
American-Irish poet Jamie O’Halloran is the author of the four chapbooks, including Corona Connemara & Half a Crown, a winner in the 2021 Fool for Poetry Competition. She has published widely in Irish, UK and US magazines, including Banshee, Poetry Ireland Review, 14 Magazine, One Hand Clapping, and The Night Heron Barks. Her poems appear in a dozen anthologies, including Romance Options and Local Wonders from Dedalus Press. She was 2021 Artist in Residence at Brigit’s Garden in County Galway and is a recipient of an Arts Council of Ireland Agility Award. She lives in Connemara in above a river with her husband, two donkeys and one cat.
CIARAN O’DRISCOLL was born in Callan, Co. Kilkenny in 1943 and lives in Limerick, he is a member of Aosdána. He has published six collections of poetry, including Gog and Magog (Salmon, 1987), Moving On, Still There (Dedalus, 2001), and Life Monitor (Three Spires Press, 2009).
His work has been translated into many languages. Liverpool University Press published his childhood memoir, A Runner Among Falling Leaves, in 2001. His novel A Year’s Midnight was published by Pighog in 2012.
He has won a number of awards for his work, including the James Joyce Prize and the Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship in Poetry. His most recent collection is ‘Angel Hour’ (SurVision, 2021), from which five poems were included in the anthology ‘Contemporary Surrealist and Magical Realist Poetry’ (Lamar University Press, Texas, 2022).
ELEANOR HOOKER is an Irish poet and writer. Her third poetry collection Of Ochre and Ash (Dedalus Press) is the recipient of the 2022 Michael Hartnett Award. Her other two collections with the Dedalus Press are A Tug of Blue and her debut The Shadow Owner’s Companion, which was shortlisted for the Strong/Shine Award for the Best First Irish Collection. Her chapbook Legion (Bonnefant Press, Netherlands) was published in 2021. Eleanor is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Limerick. She began her career as an Intensive Care Nurse and trained as a midwife at the National Maternity Hospital, Dublin.
The night begins at 7.30pm and admission is free. So join us on the night and make this event something special.
Enquiries [email protected]
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Where is it happening?
The People's Museum of Limerick, 2 Pery Square,Limerick, IrelandEvent Location & Nearby Stays: