Friday 5 February 2021

Roisin Ní Neachtain : part three

What other poetry books have you been reading lately? 

I am currently reading and rereading the commemorative anthology Hold Open the Door, from The Ireland Chair of Poetry, and Stephen Watts’ Republic of Dogs/Republic of Birds which was recommended by Sasha Dugdale on Twitter. 

I would recommend both of these to anybody. Hold Open the Door is an important collection which reflects, as Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin put it, “the meaning of influence and originality.” I think it will be of particular interest to emerging poets.

It would be impossible for me to summarise Watts’ book in a few sentences, I will only say that I have never read anything like it and I am in love with every word. I wrote a prose poem for the introduction of my collection that I was thrilled with but, after reading Watts, I am plagued with the best doubts!

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