Strokestown International Poetry Festival
Friday, 3rd – Sunday, 5th May 2024
Friday 3rd May
7.30pm café: Roscommon writers read:
Gerry Boland, Louise C. Cole, Jessamine O’Connor & Michael O’Dea.
€8
(8.30 pm Opening festival night wine reception)
9pm café:
Rita Ann Higgins & Thomas Lynch €10
Saturday 4th May
10.30 –1.00 pm garden teahouse/attic:
Poetry Workshop: Writing Nature Poetry: Presence, Loss & Restoration €45
Join poet Jane Clarke to explore how we can write vivid and arresting poetry inspired by the natural world. We will read a range of contemporary nature poems with an eye to the role of the poet at this time of environmental crisis. With prompts and guidance, we will generate new work and we will also consider practices to further develop our writing.
11am stables: Film screening:
Learning Gravity/The Undertaker, a documentary directed by Cathal Black about Irish American poet and undertaker, Thomas Lynch and both will be in attendance. €8
12.15pm stables:
Bilingual poetry reading with Celia de Fréine & Eithne Ní Ghallchobhair €8
2pm stables: Launch: Washing Windows IV: Irish Women Write Poetry with readings of new poems by
Liz McManus, Jackie Lynam, Phyl Herbert, Shauna Gilligan, Sile Agnew, Mary Rose Callaghan & Carmel Uí Cheallaigh among many others.
4pm stables: Book launch, Tony Curtis (Welsh) & Ger Reidy will present new work.
6pm café: Poetry reading by Patrick Deely & Enda Wyley €8
7.30 pm café: An evening poetry reading with Jane Clarke, Pat Boran & Mary O’Donnell €10
9 pm café: LOS LORCAS: Poetry in Concert.
Poets Partridge Boswell and Peter Money, along with guitarist Nat Williams, fuse poetry and music in a passionate and surprising mash-up and featuring the poetry of Patrick Kavanagh, William Butler Yeats, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Eavan Boland, Van Morrison, Federico Garcia Lorca and Seamus Heaney, among others. €10
Sunday 5th May
11am stables: What Poems Look Like. Poet and short filmmaker Pat Boran introduces his prize-winning poetry films, and explores the interplay of words, images, and music to produce a distinctive poetry in motion. Followed by Q&A. €8
12.15 Stables: Launch of Cyphers 96 and featuring contributors TBA
2pm Stables: Announcement by Enda Wyley of Strokestown International Poetry Festival Competition winner, and with readings from the shortlisted poets and overall winner.
4pm stables: Novelist and festival curator, Belinda McKeon, delivers the Joan McBreen lecture on poetry. €8
(6 pm café Closing festival night wine reception)
6.30 café: Book Launch: Eva Bourke, Geraldine Mills & Joseph Woods present new work.
7.30 pm café: Poetry reading, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin & Peter Sirr will read from recent work €8
9.00 pm café: Brilliant Mysteries: Music and Poetry with Duke Special & James Harpur. Poetry and songs have much in common yet they possess unique characteristics. Join Duke Special and James Harpur as they take you on a fascinating journey to explore the inspiration that comes from different art forms colliding. €12
Onsite Festival Bookseller : Alan Hayes, Arlen House