Poetry Readings by Eilish Martin and Sam Furlong

Join us as at The James Joyce Centre on Satuday, June 14th at 2pm for an afternoon of poetry featuring two contemporary Irish authors from Macha Press, a new all-island publisher whose work, in a Joycean spirit, opens up new ground and new readerships in Irish literature.

Eilish Martin’s third collection, ! All’arme / ? And what… if not, is at once experimental and intercultural work that manifests Joyce’s legacy of locating Irish writing in a wider European context.

Crowd Work is Sam Furlong’s debut poetry collection. Like Joyce’s work, it brings timely insights into the embodied nature of our lives, as we jostle, mingle, and rub up against each other in the ‘crowd work’ of social, sexual and political relations.

Macha Press was recently founded by seven poets, each with manifold areas of practice. All the founders are currently based on the island of Ireland but each has a visionary reach that is integral to the international and trans-generational character of Macha. The name resounds with the eponymous (and pregnant) goddess who runs through the Ulster Cycle; Scottish makar (poet); as well as the Irish and Scottish Gaelic for a geographic “plain”. The word “macha” has different meanings across cultures and languages that play on tropes of both fertility and power.

The event will feature readings by Martin and Furlong and a Q&A.

The event is free but booking is essential.