The Sea is my Brother: The lost NovelSessionScarred Canvas by RC Edrington Hellsteeth by Jessamine O’ConnorLet’s be straight, I am far from been a professional “Book Reviewer” but with every poetry book I read and have read I will post a recommendation more than a review, simply because I am a book lover, the guy who likes to nudge people in the ribs and say ‘hey, have you read this!’ and also to hopefully introduce new unread poetry books, good readers. Leave a comment and if you have any books you think I may be interested in, contact me and let me know.
No by Ocean Vuong Thur. Mar 2016
Re-reading ‘No’ (YesYes Books, 2013) late last night for the 5th-6th time still gave me goosebumps. A short little book of 13 poems, each powerful and remarkable in craftsmanship, gives a delicious taste of what’s to come in his first full-length collection ‘Night Sky With Exit Wounds‘, forthcoming from the brilliant Copper Canyon Press.
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Keeping Bees by Dimitra Xidous Thur. Feb 2016
Keeping Bees is a book about the body and how powerful the body can be, a book about love or broken love and full of fruit and vegetables even insects; lemons, peaches, figs, cockroaches, cleverly disguised metaphors for body parts, a tongue stuck so far in a cheek you will be left swollen and bruised.
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The Road to Isla Negra by William O’Daly Thur. Feb 2016
With this collection, O’Daly brings Neruda alive again, though, Neruda never really died and lives on in the poems and territory of his beloved land, always with us in our dreams and in our shoes.
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Loop of Jade by Sarah Howe Thur. Feb 2016
Sarah Howe hails from England but was born in Hong Kong in 1983 and lived there until she was 7. She is an academic, editor and poet. In 2015 she won the T.S. Eliot Prize (one of the most prestigious) and The Sunday Times / PFD Young Writer of the Year Award
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Hellsteeth by Jessamine O’Connor Wed. Nov 2015:
O’Connor’s poems will have you wincing, smirking, laughing and begging for more from such a small little chapbook but that’s the beauty of this small book which is full of different emotions and topics from pregnancy to aging, motherhood to relationships and are honest, engaging with a tip of the hat towards confessional poetry.
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ROPES 2013: Coming of Age by NUIG Students Wed. Apr 24 2013:
ROPES is an annual literary journal published by the students of the MA in Literature and Publishing at NUIG as is packed full of poetry, prose, art, and photography. All proceeds of ROPES 2013 are going to Jigsaw in Galway – a charity that provides free and confidential support service for 15-25-year-olds living in Galway city and county.
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Scarred Canvas by RC Edrington Tue. Feb 26 2013:
The poems in ‘Scarred Canvas’ are emotion-packed powerful images not created to shock but to draw you into the world of chaos and fragile reality that Edrington has crawled, witnessed and bled.
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Gypsy Ballads by Federico Garcia Lorca
Tue. May 29 2012: Translated by Jane Duran and Gloria Garcia Lorca 214pp
In their brilliant new translation, Jane Duran and Gloria Garcia Lorca have been faithful to Lorca’s work, searching out original meanings, avoiding overt interpretations, reproducing metaphors, so as to bring to an English-speaking reader the pure power of Lorca’s poetry. This bilingual edition also includes revealing insights into the Romancero and the history of the Spanish ballad form by Andres Soria Olmedo
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The Iliad by Homer
Wed. May 02 2012: Translated by Stephen Mitchell 544pp
Stephen Mitchell’s magnificent new translation of the Iliad reminds us that there is always a new and different way to read and interpret the great classics and that they need to be reinvigorated from generation to generation, just as we need to be reminded that they are, however, venerated, above all stories: exciting, full of life and great characters, in short great entertainment, not just great monuments of culture or the Western canon
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House Of Bees
Tue. Apr 03 2012: by Stephen Murray. 100pp
House of Bees announces the arrival of a brilliant and unique voice into the realm of contemporary Irish poetry. A beautiful, terrifying, and moving debut that wastes no time in bringing the reader on a Dantesque descent into the macabre-the gushing imagery and fluidity in dealing with such themes as domestic abuse, mental illness, love, and addiction. Shocking yet charming, cogent but humble, House of Bees is poetry at its merciless best.
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New Poets ∙ Short Books ∙ Volume V
Tue. Mar 20 2012: by Lost Horse Press. 108pp
3 excellent poets in one book from the USA. Robert Peake, Valentine Freeman, and Jensea Storie bring 3 different types of poetry that needs to be read and enjoyed.
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From the Rib
Thur. Mar 1 2012: By Fiona Clark Echlin. 53pp
Fiona Clark Echlin has created a collection of well crafted beautiful and inspiring sonnets and villanelles published with Revival Press. These poems, as we know, when read loud sound outstanding, beautiful, perfect music, and the rhythm jumps from tongue to ear with perfection, which, Fiona has managed to do with the poems in this book.
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Session
Tue. Feb 21 2012: by Pete Mullineaux. 82pp
Pete Mullineaux has a lifetime fascination with the twin worlds of poetry and music: Pete also plays the guitar, mandolin, and fiddle. These are poems with elements of lyric, narrative and song, exploring and celebrating the presence of music in human interaction and in nature.
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Extravagaria by Pablo Neruda
Tue. Feb 14 2012: Translated by Alastair Reid. 304 pp
Extravagaria marks an important stage in Neruda’s progress as a poet. The book was written just after he had returned to Chile after many wanderings and moved to his beloved Isla Negra on the Pacific coast. These sixty-eight poems thus denote a resting point, a rediscovery of sea and land, and an “autumnal period” (as the poet himself called it). In this book, Neruda developed a lyric poetry decidedly more personal than his earlier work
Read More Here…
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The Water Glossary by Carol Anne Connolly Fri. Mar 18
This is a gorgeous little book, a collection of Irish terms for water in many different contexts producing stunning descriptions of landscape, weather, and the natural environment, brilliantly researched and perfectly produced and designed.
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Mentioning The War
Tue. June 19 2012: by Kevin Higgins
Poet Kevin Higgins introduces us to his reviews and essays in a new book, Mentioning the War. Full of wit, opinions, criticism, informative and provocative, there is plenty of content here to keep you entertained.
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Under The Avalanche
Thur. Mar 15 2012: by Anne McCabe. 258pp
A Heartfelt Story of Ireland from the 1940s to the 1980s, and the secret shame that has befallen so many women whose only sin was to dare to fall in love.
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The Sea is my Brother: The Lost Novel
Tue. Mar 6 2012: By Jack Kerouac. 432pp
“The Sea is My Brother” is Jack Kerouac’s first novel and the 158-page handwritten manuscript was not published during his lifetime. He wrote in his notes for the project that the characters were ‘the vanishing American, the big free by, the American Indian, the last of the pioneers, the last of the hoboes’.
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Empire of the Summer Moon
Fri. Feb 2 2012: By S.C.Gwynne. 371pp
In the tradition of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, a stunningly vivid historical account of the forty-year battle between Comanche Indians and white settlers for control of the American West, centering on Quanah, the greatest Comanche chief of them all.
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Federico Garcia Lorca A Life
Wed. Jan 25 2012: by Ian Gibson. 576 pp
Federico Garcia Lorca was a famous Spanish poet and dramatist. This biography by Ian Gibson gives an account of his family, his private life and his mysterious death, as well as tracing his literary development.
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