Introduction
“As it comes into being,
the poem is marking and
measuring itself against
a combination of what it
might now be and what it
might yet become.”
Paul Muldoon, The End of the Poem
Markings and measurements, the
realities of the present and the
possibilities that lie ahead; with these
notions, we are led onto the terrain of
the poem by Paul Muldoon, the poet
and critic whose keynote address will
open the 2010 dlr Poetry Now Festival.
Every year, we aim with our programme
to map out the very best of poetry from
around the world, and this year is no
different, with poets joining us from
countries including Albania, the Czech
Republic, Spain, Mexico, the UK and the
USA. But, as this year’s keynote address
will remind us, it is with pride and
real pleasure, too, that we can look to
the work of poets from Ireland; to the
depth, the complexity and the diversity
of that work.
With Go Fish: Six Irish Poets, Paul Muldoon will provide dlr Poetry Now 2010 with a rip-roaring kickoff; we’re delighted that he will also, two nights later, treat us to a reading of his own poetry, when he will take to the stage along with the major Mexican poet Homero Aridjis and with the renowned Anne Stevenson, heir to both the American and the British poetic traditions.
It’s a thrill, too, to welcome back the great Derek Mahon, whose collection Life on Earth (Gallery Books) last year won The Irish Times Poetry Now Award. He will read with the eminent US poet Rosanna Warren in what promises to be a unique and enlivening double-bill on Friday night. Friday will also bring a reading by the superb Irish poet Justin Quinn, by his exciting Albanian contemporary Luljeta Lleshanaku, and by this year’s T.S. Eliot Award winner, Philip Gross, who comes to us from Wales.
One of the most talented voices on the contemporary American scene, meanwhile, will be sounded on Saturday evening, when we present a reading by Kevin Young, who will be joined by two writers who are among the very best of their respective generations: Ireland’s Vona Groarke and Catalonia’s Joan Margarit. And, as ever, our final reading on Sunday afternoon promises to be a powerhouse of poetic talents; you’ll go home enraptured by the poems of Scotland’s John Burnside, our own John F. Deane and, from the Czech Republic, Sylva Fischerová.
This year’s festival will honour one of the truly great presences of the Irish poetry scene, The Gallery Press, the independent publishing house which has done so much to develop and to support Irish poetry, and which celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2010. Join us for a public interview with founder and editor of The Gallery Press, Peter Fallon, and for a special Gallery Press reading by the poets of dlr Poetry Now and some special guests.
The festival will also host writing workshops, a children’s reading, a conversation on the craft of writing poetry, and the announcement and presentation of The Irish Times Poetry Now Award 2010 for the best collection of poetry in 2009, and of the Rupert & Eithne Strong Award for the year’s best first collection. We very much look forward to seeing you and to enjoying your company at the weekend’s readings, talks and events.
Belinda McKeon, Festival Curator.