This article is from page 34 of the 2008-09-30 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 34 JPG
ONE of the hidden gems of Clare’s vibrant artistic scene will be brought to the fore this Thursday at the Court- house Gallery in Ennistymon.
North Clare’s Salmon Poetry will celebrate National Poetry Day by hosting a free poetry reading at the gallery from 7.30pm.
The evening will include a mixture of poets and styles with a line up fea- turing the best of local as well as na- tional poets. It feature locally based poets Frank Golden and Knute Skin- ner, Galway poets Caroline Lynch
and Peter Mullineaux as-well-as Paul Allen and Michael Heffernan.
“We have a number of visiting po- ets and some local poets involved so it promises to be a very exciting evening,’ said Jean Cusack of Salm- on Poetry.
“We are going to have a great mix- ture of poets. Knute is a very well established poet, Frank would be midway, while Caroline just pub- lished her first collection earlier this year. It’s great to get the newer poets in with the most established poets, it makes for a very interesting reading and give the poets and the audience a
good mix.”
Founded by Jessie Lendennie in Galway in 1981, Salmon Poetry has moved operation to the Burren in recent times. Over the years it has cultivated an image as an alterna- tive voice in Irish literature, focuss- ing greatly on promoting new and female artists.
Over the last quarter of a century the company have published some 200 volumes of poetry and have marked themselves out as great inno- vators in the Irish poetry scene.
“Events like this are great ways of getting poetry out there to the people
but also a good way to show off just how many poets we have based here in rural Ireland. A lot of Salmon’s poets are based in the west of Ire- land,’ continued Jean.
“We have more than 20 books of poems published this year at Salmon so people’s interest in poems does seem to be on the way up. But as well as publishing, it’s great for poets to be able to get their work out there and to perform in from of a live audi- ence.”
Salmon Poetry is based in Lis- cannor and can be contacted at info@salmonpoetry.com