New online course, The Craft of Poetry Writing, starting in February

February is an opportune month to awaken the senses to new sights, sounds and possibilities for your poetry practice as we leave behind the dark days of Winter in the hope of brighter, breezier and indeed, safer times just around the corner. I’m delighted to announce that I will be teaching an 8-week online course, ‘The Craft of Poetry Writing’ for the Centre for Adult Learning and Professional Development at NUI Galway throughout February and March. The course will run on Thursday evenings from 7pm to 8:30pm beginning on Thursday, 4 February. Part lecture, part workshop, we will explore a different aspect of poetry and prosody each week with themes including: voice, ekphrasis, poetic forms, line breaks and revision, among others. You will receive valuable feedback on your poems in a safe and encouraging space, as well as plenty of creative prompts to inspire new work. The course is excellent value at just €100 and you will come away with some fresh insights and a range of newly composed pieces. For full details on ‘The Craft of Poetry Writing’ and for the link to the short online courses booket visit www.nuigalway.ie/shortcourses. Places are limited so don't hesitate to book your spot as soon as possible.

Journeys in Words book club resumes - on the stories of Liam O'Flaherty

Inis Mór born writer, Liam O'Flaherty fascinates me. A man of action & rebel who travelled the world twice over, fought in WWI and on the Republican side in the Civil War, raised the red flag of revolution over the Rotunda in 1922, visited soviet Russia, produced nearly a novel per year during the 1920s and into the 1930s, ranged from romantic realist to caustic social satirist. His memoirs, especially Shame the Devil (1937), make for an electrifying read. Witness its striking opening provocation: “Man is a born liar. Otherwise he would not have invented the proverb: “Tell the truth and shame the devil.” He is truly one of our great Irish writers and I love that he and his work can't easily be 'pinned down' by the critical establishment. Over the next two Tuesdays I have the pleasure of exploring his short stories in the free online book club I'm facilitating for Galway Public Libraries, Journeys in Words - From Galway to Dublin, which resumes at 7pm on Tuesday, 5 January with our final session on Tuesday, 12 January. This Tuesday we will be joined by poet and publisher, Seamus Cashman who played an important role in the recovery of Liam's work in the 1970s and 80s at Wolfhound Press, and who was also the author's friend. There are still a few places left and this book club is for the general public - for everyone who likes reading. Click on this link to bag one of the few remaining places!

New Online Book Club: Journeys in Words - From Galway to Dublin - starting Tuesday, 8 December

Following on from the highly successful Eilís Dillon Online Book Club, I'm delighted to let you know that I'm working with Galway Public Libraries on another exciting odyssey through words which focuses on two great Irish writers of the 20th c: Maeve Brennan and Liam O'Flaherty. During the 'Journeys in Words' book club we'll be traversing from East to West coast, from 1920s suburban Dublin to the rugged, elemental settings of Inis Mór. Fasten your seatbelt, grab your book, sit back and relax to join us for this journey! We will start by looking at Maeve Brennan's stories in The Springs of Affection (Stinging Fly Press, 2016) this month and continue with O'Flaherty's Irish Portraits: 14 Stories (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2012) after Christmas. Running for one hour, from 7pm - 8pm each session, our dates are: Tuesday, 8 Deecember Tuesday, 15 December, Tuesday, 5 January and Tuesday, 12 January 2021. See the full schedule below. Membership is always free but places are limited and tickets are available on a first-come-first-served basis. Click here to book your place! #galwaypubliclibraries #maevebrennan #liamoflaherty #greatirishwriters

Eilís Dillon Centenary Free Events Online - Politics & Patriotism seminar this evening

Despite all the challenges of 2020, Galway's own internationally acclaimed writer, Eilís Dillon (1920-1994) has been enjoying renewed appreciation and celebration in her centenary year. It has been a privilege to be part of some of the many events on her life and work that have taken place - some just before lockdown in early March - and others [fully socially distanced] since October and November. Galway Public Libraries have been busy commemorating Dillon and reappraising her legacy in a weekly book club during October (which I was honoured to facilitate), in education with the 5 Islands One Author project with Sadbh Devlin and also in three seminars exploring Dillon's times and writings around her politics and patriotism, historical fictions and detective novels (with special art and music commissions also ahead). The first of these seminars, Eilís Dillon: Politics & Patriotism, will be streamed online this evening at 7pm and features poet and Dillon's daughter, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Dr. Cathríona Clear and Honor O Brolchain, Dillon's niece and yours truly as convenor. Special musicians featured are Carmel Dempsey and Tomás Mannion. Visit the Galway Public Libraries YouTube channel and tune in to this unique event which integrates discussion with readings and music.

Some recent projects and publications

“Music is colours and time in rhythm,” remarked Claude Debussy, memorably. One wonders if he was actually synaesthetic, ie. if he experienced sound as colour, or perhaps what he is referring to here are the tonal textures of music. Whatever his intention, Debussy is a fascinating composer, often credited with pioneering musical Impressionism, (though he had also some issues with that particular term) so I was thrilled to be invited by Maeve Bryan of Galway Music Residency to participate in their Creative Responses project. The task: to respond in poetry to Debussy’s String Quartet in G Minor, as performed by ConTempo - Galway’s wonderful quartet-in-residence. Composed when Debussy was just 31, this work in G Minor is his only string quartet, and what a dazzling opus it is. I'm always up for an ekphrastic challenge as well as the adventure of collaboration, (and have long admired and appreciated ConTempo's brilliant work) so this was an immensely enjoyable project to sink my teeth into. The only tricky part was grabbing a figurative bite to chew on since this piece dances, vacillates, heaves and swoons all over the place! Bursting with ingenuity, Debussy’s opening theme moves with a vibrant staccato swagger through various shades of interrogation, doubt, anger, whimsy, nostalgia and a final decisive resolution, that is utterly altered, but unequivocally firm. I tried, initally, to write a line-by-line rhetort to the changing moods of the piece, but eventually plumped for a different approach: to use one of the more curious lines that came up as a springboard for a poem that would also have a kind of syncopated sonority, oscillating in tone and movement. I corralled the following sentence to explore and unpack further and had plenty of fun along the way: “What would it look like if I were to modulate out of Mum into another mode?” The premise: a busy mother with a full morning of freedom ahead of her leaves the chores to one side and let her thoughts meander and feelings fulminate... So I ran with this and am pleased with the resulting poem, which is read beautifully by Maeve Bryan in the video clip below, with Debussy's composition following immediately after, along with many stunning visual responses to the music by a host of exciting artists from Galway and Mayo. I hope you enjoy it too! I’m delighted, also, to have a poem entitled “Time” in the current Autumn 2020 issue of Crannóg magazine. This Galway-based international publication has a special place in my heart and it’s great to learn that this edition - no. 53 - has already gone to a second printing. Their biggest issue yet, it features 45 poets and 9 fiction writers.

Because of the lockdown, there was no launch event for issue 53, but if you’d like to purchase a copy you can do so here. Below is my poem, “Time” which features in Crannog 53 and captures something of my ongoing turbulent relationship with the eponymous entity! I hope you like it.

Online Poetry Courses starting soon ... book your place now

"Perception is the first act of the imagination," wrote William Carlos Williams. Would you like to devote more time to perception, imagination and your poetry practice over the coming Winter weeks? Want to immerse yourself in vivid poetry that works on a number of levels while composing new poems of your own and learning approaches and techniques to expand your knowledge and sharpen your craft? I am delighted to announce that I will be running online poetry courses starting in early November and running for six weeks. The courses are ideally aimed at emerging poets or those who have some experience writing poetry and may have started to publish their poems, but advanced writers will also find stimulation and encouragement. As someone who has greatly enjoyed teaching courses on Creative Writing (to undergraduate students at the University of Melbourne and at NUI Galway) and Appreciation of Poetry (to adult learners at NUI Galway) for many years, I agree with poet, Theodore Roethke's observation that "teaching is an act of love, a spiritual cohabitation, one of the few sacred relationships left in a crass secular world." For these online courses, I am keeping group sizes small to create and maintain a warm, supportive atmosphere and a safe space for creativity to flourish. I’m also keeping costs low because of these challenging pandemic times we are all living through. We will begin at 7pm on Thursday, 5 November with duration about an hour or just over. There are a couple of spaces still available. To find out more and book your place, please contact me now on: emilycullendavison@gmail.com.

Eilís Dillon Book Club starts tomorrow...

The past week has flown and I'm delighted to announce that the Eilís Dillon Book Club is now full with 25 members having signed up. Our first session takes place online tomorrow (Thursday, 8 October) at 7pm. Taking her novel, The Bitter Glass (1958) as our main focus, the Eilís Dillon Book Club will also discuss the author's life and legacy and feature special guests each week, including her daughter, renowned poet, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, son, Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin, Anne Marie Herron, Siobhán Morrissey and Maureen O'Connor. In our first session we will ease into the book by chatting about our initial impressions of the text with a special focus on the Galway scenes and the world Dillon is creating. The Bitter Glass is an ideal choice for Galway’s Great Read, I think, for a number of reasons: 1) the book is set in Galway city and county and includes many lush descriptions of the landscape, the sea, the Connemara people, folklore and rich nathanna cainte or turns of phrase; 2) its plotline is engaging throughout, yet artfully simple – it keeps us compelled to read while the story arc is cohesive and enjoyable; 3) the time period in which the book is set – 1922 during the Irish Civil War – is resonant and, as such, addresses themes from our history that are especially notable in this second phase of the Decade of Centenaries; 4) the story is well told in prose that is clear and lucent and 5) last but not least, it is written by a homegrown talent – a true Galwegian. If you'd like to join us in spirit, we'd be delighted. The Bitter Glass is now available to read via Kindle here. (If you don't own a Kindle, you could download the Kindle app to your device). You can also read a sampler of the first three chapters of the novel for free on the Eilís Dillon website. Below is an outline of what we'll be exploring at the Book Club over the next four weeks. Happy reading!:

The Eilís Dillon Book Club is presented by Galway Public Libraries as part of Galway's Great Read funded by Creative Ireland, Galway County Council and the Decade of Centenaries.