The Space Between - my first full poetry collection

I have some very exciting news to finish off the year. My first full collection will be published in the Autumn of 2015 by the wonderful Doire Press. I'm very excited about this, as you can imagine.

The collection is called "The Space Between" which is a line from my poem "Reaching Agreement." You can listen to this poem here. We're working on a cover currently. I'll blog about it when it's finalised.

What's it about? I think a first collection is pulled from many years of poems so the themes are more disparate. Check out the tagxedo above. If I take out the red-headed man, just one poem, a good one but not the heart of the whole collection, it looks like this.

So it must be about hands, love, time and watching but it's also about Science, creativity, life, family and feminism. There are cats too.

Some of the poems from my dinky chapbook from 2011, Some Poems from moth editions are included. It's been sold out now for ages so if you didn't manage to get a copy, you're in luck. You can probably pre-order, either with Doire or ask me for a signed copy.

We'll launch it in the autumn and I'm looking for opportunities to read around the country and beyond at the end of year so do get in touch if you can help. I'll be doing some promotion next year, blogging, tweeting, interviews I hope and whatever else you can suggest.

Doire Press is based in Connemara, It has been going since 2007 and has published some great books, poetry and fiction since then, finding its niche in publishing new and emerging writers who give voice to what it means to be Irish in a changing Ireland. These writers includes poets Adam White, Kimberly Campanello, Kevin O’Shea, Susan Lindsay, Jo Hemmant and Dimitra Xidous; and fiction writers Aileen Armstrong, Celeste Auge, Jim Mullarkey and Madeleine D’Arcy. The founders are John Walsh and Lisa Frank. There's an interesting interview with John here on writing.ie. 

The high standard of the books is reflected by the shortlisting of the brilliant 2013 collection "Accurate Measurements" by Adam White for the Forward Prize. You can buy books such as this one using Paypal or even old school style cheques here to support the publisher. God knows, small publishers need all the support they can get.


Other books planned for release in 2015 include:

• By the Light of Four Moons by John MacKenna
• Line of Drift by Robyn Rowland
• The Lie of the Land by Elaine Gaston
• In Another Country by Rafiq Kathwari
• The Way They Might Look at You by Paul O’Reilly
• In a Hare’s Eye by Breda Wall Ryan

Should be a terrific year.