Greg Hill : part three

What do you feel poetry can accomplish that other forms can’t?

Like the nutritious dinners I make and serve to my young children, poetry has the ability to evoke disappointment, dislike, and disgust, even before it is experienced.

Lynne Thompson : part four

What other poetry books have you been reading lately?

frank: sonnets, Diane Seuss

& more black, t’ai freedom ford

DMZ Colony, Don Mee Choi

Under the Capsized Boat We Fly, Gail Wronsky

The Essential June Jordon

Brandi Spering : part three

How does your work first enter the world? Do you have a social group or writers group that you work ideas and poems with?

I usually read all first drafts to my fiancé, as he is always just a room or two away. He’s my live-in editor. But I also share my work with a group of writer friends to workshop. Their critiques and line edits improve my writing, tenfold.

Damien B. Donnelly : part one

Damien B. Donnelly, 45, returned to Ireland in 2019 after 23 years in Paris, London and Amsterdam, working in the fashion industry. His writing focuses on identity, fragility and connection. His daily interests revolve around falling over and learning how to get back up while baking rather delicious cakes.

His short stories have been featured in A Page from My Life from Harper Collins Ireland, Body Horror from Gehenna & Hinnom and Volume 3 of Coffin Bell. His poetry has appeared in many publications online and in print including Eyewear, The Runt, Black Bough, Barren Magazine, Impspired, Neurological, The Adriatic, Fahmidan Journal, Prismatica, Anti-Heroin Chic, Fevers of the Mind, Bealtaine and 2 Metre Review. His debut poetry pamphlet Eat the Storms was published by The Hedgehog Press in Sept 2020 and he followed that up with a Stickleback micro poetry collection Considering Canvases with Boys in January 2021, also from The Hedgehog Press. He is the producer and host of the weekly poetry podcast Eat The Storms on Spotify, Apple, Podbean and many other podcast platforms. His pamphlet, co-written with Eilin de Paor, In the Jitterfritz of Neon will be published by The Hedgehog Poetry Press later this year. He is currently working on his 1st full collection which will be a poetic/photographic diary of his years living with Paris.

His poetry and photography blog is https://deuxiemepeaupoetry.com/ where you can buy his poetry collections

His podcast website is https://eatthestorms.com/

His Instagram handles are @damiboy and @eatthestorms 

His Twitter handle is @deuxiemepeau

His Tiktok is @eatthestorms and his YouTube channel is https://www.youtube.com/user/deuxiemepeau

What are you working on?

I’ve just finished working on a conversational poetry pamphlet, a poetic duet with fellow Irish poet Eilín de Paor. The collection is called In the Jitterfritz of Neon and will be published by The Hedgehog Poetry Press later this year. We wrote this collection during Covid, 20 poems sparked by memories of nights out, recalled at a time when we were asked to stay in. I'm very proud of this collection, which we emailed back and forth to each other and expanded on over zoom meetings, each session igniting something in the other person so it became a game of creative tag. Right now, I am working with a mentor, Anna Saunders, acclaimed poet and Director of the Cheltenham Poetry Festival, to finalize my first full poetry collection called Enough, inspired by my years living in Paris. The collection is supported by The Arts Council Ireland. The collection is divided into 6 parts as I look upon the city of Paris as if we were in a relationship, exploring all the glitter and the guilt that slipped in, later. At the end of the year I will focus on a collection based on my experience of returning to live in Ireland after 23 years abroad, triggered by thoughts of other countries, other cities, other streets I found rooms in while trying to retrace my former footprints here, in my home country where I still feel like a foreigner. The collection will be loosely titled Back from Away and will be supported by the Fingal Arts.   

Stuart McPherson : part three

What poets changed the way you thought about writing?

For me, it was the poet, Aaron Kent. He redefined for me what was possible on a page, what was possible in terms of language. Not just structurally, but in terms of instilling meaning into the very aesthetics of a poem. After Aaron, I would say Frank Stanford / Ted Hughes, Frank in terms of fragility and feeling, and Ted Hughes (Crow specifically) in terms of sheer dark gnarliness!

Mel Sherrer : part three

What do you feel poetry can accomplish that other forms can’t?

I love that poetry can convey a spot in time. I do not feel that any other form can better render emotion from a reader in the examination of a single moment. Also, there is a type of play poetry can accomplish that would render other forms unreadable. For me, poetry induces the most experimentation and innovation, because it allows the most play.

M.S. Evans : part two

How did you first engage with poetry?

When I was a kid I tried writing poems on an old Underwood typewriter. The click clack sound made me feel legit. I never shared any of my writing then though.