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Poetry Day Ireland takes place this year on Thursday, 27 April 2023 and the students and staff of the University of Limerick’s MA in Creative Writing programme are planning an exciting lunchtime poetry reading which is open to the public. The free event, which will take place from 1:00pm – 2:15pm in BOURN VINCENT GALLERY, University Concert Hall Building, will feature guest poet, Anton Floyd and showcase new poems from the MA students and staff of the programme.
“Poetry is often a vital act of compression” said Emily Cullen, the Meskell Poet in Residence. “In keeping with this year’s theme of ‘Message in a Bottle,’ the students on the MA in Creative Writing have composed urgent new poems with important messages about our times, which they will cast out for Poetry Day,” Cullen said.
“A particular focus of our event will be the plight of international refugees” said co-organiser, Eoin Devereux “and we are delighted that our guest poet, Anton Floyd, will be reading from his collection, Depositions (Doire Press, 2022), which engages with the international refugee crisis and themes of war and displacement.”
Now based in West Cork, Anton Floyd was born in Egypt, a Levantine mix of Irish, Maltese, English and French Lebanese. His first poetry collection, Falling into Place (2018) was published by Revival Press. Floyd edited Remembrance Suite (2018), a chapbook of sonnets by Shirin Sabri and an international anthology of poems, Point by Point (2018). He received the 2019 Literary Prize awarded by the Dazzling Spark Arts Foundation (Scotland). His most recent collection, Depositions was published last year by Doire Press and a new collection, On the Edge of Invisibility is forthcoming.
Both Emily Cullen and Eoin Devereux will also read from their work on the day and they will be joined by their colleague on the Creative Writing team, Donal Ryan, who will read an extract from his celebrated fourth novel, From a Low and Quiet Sea, which has also been adapted for stage.
This reading is a free event, but any donations on the day will go towards supporting the work of the UNHCR - Ireland, the UN Refugee agency. All are welcome to attend and no pre-booking is necessary. For information about all nationwide events taking place for Poetry Day Ireland, visit
www.poetryday.ie
