Julie Morrissey (Poetry Ireland Review 127) praises the formal experimentation of Crunch by Anamaría Crowe Serrano:
” At a glance readers will take note of Crunch’s various font-sizes, graphic representations, concrete influences and spacing on the page …I appreciated the non-narrative sensibility… Crunch is an innovative collection, which tasks its readers to fully immerse themselves in this exuberant work.”
“In The Dark illuminates difficult truths in a divided family, united under one roof during the battle of Teruel in the Spanish civil war.” Ruth McKee The Irish Times
“Anamaría Crowe Serrano has written a remarkable novel. In The Dark is an extraordinary and vivid reading experience, one that will remain with every reader for quite some time after the final page is turned. Giving the reader this incredible insight into the Spanish Civil War from the female perspectives of María, Julita and other women, In The Dark is historically immersive and quite a special novel.” Máiread Hearne, Swirl and Thread
“Tiger Moth is a book that pays careful attention, inviting readers, too, into spaces of noticing and appreciating minutiae too often overlooked amid everyday hurries. Tierney achieves this through fine description, striking imagery, and sensitive details. The poems in Tiger Moth never tell readers what to think, but rather, via juxtapositions and connections, give rise to thought, deep and complex.”
Amelia Walker, London Grip
Reading Alchemy will excite your imagination. You will travel in a magic carpet to the past and present, the vivid images in the poem will become a painting in your mind. I advise: read each poem a few times and you will, with each reading discover layers of beauty and humanity.
Perry’s exploration of cultural connections; the way she conveys humankind’s spiritual relationship with nature; her use of the stunning imagery and her command of form. Suffice it to say ‘Alchemy’ is a truly impressive, sometimes challenging work by a hugely-talented writer with a distinctive voice and vision. Nigel Kent
“…moving and memorable, but also balanced and accomplished, with an obvious love for language and the meaning of words.”
Moyra Donaldson, Bangor Literary Journal
“[Jo Burns’] poetry, timely in form as well as content, reflects her identity as a global writer and Irish poet reporting from the crossroads of the current moment.” Dick Edelstein, Dublin Review of Books
“In Brink, Burns offers a snapshot of our times that reveals changes in manners and habits which have occurred during the Covid crisis… The poet’s timely sketch of our brave new world builds on the writing style of her previous volume. She now delineates with new sharpness and clarity a description of our world from the point of view of a global citizen.” Dick Edelstein, Dublin Review of Books
” The graceful control of the poems demonstrates skill and understanding of lyric and subject. bind is a book to dip into and return to with the possibility of seeing something new on each visit.” Emma Lee, The Blue Nib 36 December 2018
“…these poems call for a close attention as the reader pieces together the fragmentary sense of the texts. Murray’s poetics call for a bond between the eye and the imagination, and at her best she turns out hallucinatory ways of seeing, conjuring from her images a more expansive metaphorical experience.” Seán Hewitt, The Irish Times
“Chris Murray seeks to reinforce poetry’s link with the natural world and its healing properties. She aims for a gentle touch, focusing on the beauty in a flimsy petal or the vibrancy of a buttercup’s gold.” Emma Lee
I can think of very few poets writing today in the English language who can imbue a poem in so few words with such power and force and yet with such incredibly delicacy. Peter O’Neill
In her review in Poetry Ireland Review Issue 127, Julie Morrissey noted how this collection
“…draws together sometimes disparate influences, including a series of tanka, odes to the Paua (Maori sea snails), poems about Christian practices and confessional and lyrical poems…his wry humour comes through in poems such as ‘Shopping’…at times, reading this collection was akin to waking up in new surroundings, a slightly disorientating experience, but one with enough intrigue to continue exploring.”
” Strangers is an examination of parameters and possibilities. It explores spaces, concrete and metaphysical, easily moving between the natural and the man-made…[it] will leave you will a curiously angry smile on your face as Hattaway chooses to answer life with whimsy in places, but bemoans the certitude of heartache as well.”
“Ross Hattaway’s new collection, Plain, lays bare the shadowy ambiguities with which every life, if truth were told, is riddled. There is a glorious flat wit to many of these poems, which fizz like some strange sherbet sweet. Hattaway is an adept satirist of the small, but crucial, things of life such as boiled cabbage and ratatouille. His evocation of the darkness that lies just beyond every life may be Larkinesque. But whereas Larkin often seemed a man awaiting the arrival of his own coffin, in Hattaway’s poems, the blood still absolutely pumps.” Kevin Higgins
Karacosta has acted in London and New York and having a working actor describe her emotions, responses, despair, and isolation have an added layer of experience, as, for many, an actor is a person of masks and various personalities. The protective Covid mask gives a further dehumanisation of people in lockdown. Liam Murphy, The Munster Express
“This is a collection which revels in language and its ability to render the everyday beautiful…Lannon is a poet of great linguistic facility, whose work is suffused with the numinous.” Jessica Traynor, Poetry Ireland Review
“Eithne Lannon’s debut collection is primarily imagistic in style, and she captures the actuality of moments in space and time with an admirable economy…She also focuses on the relationship between language and sensory experience, a searching after the most apt syntax in which to frame our experience of the world. In a typical Lannon poem, some fact, some person, place or thing, is posited as a site of enquiry and then unfolded in words, a process of verbal opening out…” Billy Mills, Elliptical Movements
Liam Murphy, in the Munster Express, praises Eithne Lannon’s ability to convey
“…the power of light and reveal connections of everyday wonder, desire, absence, lonelines, longing and the radiance of the world, even in death and desolation…Poetry is often the art of language capturing moments and Eithne Lannon does this so beautifully.”
“Eithne Lannon’s Everything Gathers Light is a feast. For all the senses. In this gorgeous collection, Lannon inhabits the liminal space, literally breath to breath. She distills and decants language, offering meditative maps for mind, body and spirit. With exceptional deftness, in this, Lannon’s second collection, she takes us into a deeply personal interior world, exploring emotional shifts perceived through perfectly balanced siftings of light and shade.” Eileen Casey, Senior Times
“…a wonderful introduction to a self-deprecating wordsmith.” Liam Murphy, The Munster Express
“Maolalai’s poems shine with the influence of imagism or are in the steps of William Carlos Williams and Frank O’Hara in the use of short lines and personal tone…[and] a way of poetry writing giving attention to plain things, common people, and daily life that can easily slip the notice.” John Zheng, North of Oxford
“D.S. Maolalai is cool and literate and if he hesitates over an image, it is to sort out the connections and re-connections they bring to mind and life.” Liam Murphy, The Munster Express
“Noble Rot is[ ] a collection of observations of daily life or plain things connected to places and people…The success of this connectedness lies in the poet’s eloquent narration, down-to-earth voice with no pretensions, and effort in using the language effectively and creatively. In short, they deserve reading.” John Zheng, North of Oxford
“A joy to read and flowering with hues of good edits, delicate Irish turn of phrase and lovingly hand stitched through a talented poetic edge.” Michelle Moloney King.
“The poems range between descriptions of the landscape and an almost anthropological engagement with the myths and rituals of the community…” Poetry Ireland Review, November 2020
“This beautiful collection of poems tells us two stories: one about a body that ‘tumbles, drowns /… [is] in mortal trouble’ and another
about an inner self which, albeit wounded, continues to feel ‘charmed’, finding both beauty and love in the world. I was moved on
every page.” Tom Sperlinger
“Even as he contemplates terrible things, the unutterable tragedies that can befall the world, this is a collection of vivid imaginings and our world is the richer, the better, for it.” Derek Coyle
“A strong collection showcasing years of work with experiences of illness and respite, belief and questioning, mixed with shots of
surrealism – crocodiles in hospitals and Philip Larkin taking selfies. I, for one, am glad that Donohue’s work is now out there and he is no longer a secret poet.” Simon Lewis
“A remarkable anthology of beautifully executed, stark chronicles about the way we live now.’ …impactful, insightful, superbly written…a real reader’s treat.” Anne Cunningham, The Sunday Independent
‘McSkeane’s writing is skilful and spare…reading her stories provides food for thought on how we might act under similar circumstances…a spare style of writing devoid of hyperbole or drama.’ Susan McKeever, Books Ireland Magazine
“…an eminently satisfying read…mature, skilful, diverse in subject and style.” Jo Nestor, writing.ie
“What to Put in a Suitcase is an impactful, modern collection of short stories that awaken the senses and asks the questions we sometimes choose to ignore. Nothing is wasted in the language used throughout. Many of the stories demonstrate the vulnerability of being human, examining our behaviour in different circumstances. Liz McSkeane understands our need for real connections, for interaction, for love, to be needed, to be heard and with her skilled pen she demonstrates these human traits with lucidity and wisdom.” Mairéad Hearne, Swirl and Thread
“The characters, every one of them, have depth and life… The central theme of what truth is, both in politics and within the Church, remains so relevant today that this is a difficult novel to put down… The complexity of the politics involved, the careful layering of the plot and the unfolding events, make this a novel that you will want to savor… Very highly recommended.” Kristen McQuinn, Historical Novel Review
“Fray Martín de Sepúlveda is a wonderful character, reminding me of C.J. Sansom’s Matthew Shardlake. His determination to uncover the truth, his strong principles, his unshakable morals, his cynicism and his overall personality make him the perfect detective for the time… [Canticle] is an intelligent and engrossing read about a very fascinating period of history. Liz McSkeane has created a superb character in Fray Martín and I do hope that he continues his detective work in a future novel.” Mairéad Hearne, Swirl and Thread
In Poetry Ireland Review Nessa O Mahoney
Eileen Casey Senior Times
“Mortality, immortality, and ageing are conjured both in the title and the poems of So Long, Calypso. The collection moves between various cities and towns and is punctuated with a handful of poems about a friend struggling with old age. So Long, Calypso harbours a lasting charm…” Poetry Ireland Review, Issue 127, Julie Morrissey
“So Long, Calypso is a moving collection, one whose characters and stories are easy to empathise with and relate to… it is the memory of the speakers’ various emotions, laid out and exposed, that will stay after reading.” Colin Dardis, Lagan Online issue of November, 2017.