Leeanne Quinn released her second collection, Some Lives, lauded by Martina Evans as one of the Irish Times Books best poetry books of 2020: 'worth the wait. Her voice has leaped in the eight years interim, still lyrical, delicate yet strong - but even more muscular...'🥚🧵

Bebe Ashley's sparkly debut Gold Light Shining marked Banshee Press's first foray into poetry publishing, earning superlative praise from fellow poets Stephen Sexton ('dazzling', 'rapturous'), @DoireannNiG ('lush', 'dizzying') Padraig Regan ('tender', 'insightful') and more 🕺✨👖

Aoife Lyall's long-awaited debut Mother, Nature, made its way into the world with Bloodaxe Books, described by former IrelandChairOfPoetry professor Michael Longley as a 'beautiful and moving collection — a fine debut', and Claire Hennessy as 'both heart-warming and heart-breaking'❤️💔

Jake Hawkey's (@hawkeyjake) Breeze Block was published with fantastic co-operative Lumpen, celebrated by Supriya Kaur Dhaliwal as 'a striking collection, asking its reader to engage with its electrifying juxtapositions' and Jay Parini as 'full of a spiky energy' 🌬️🧱

Matthew Rice's first collection The Last Weather Observer debuted with Summer Palace Press, with Luke Kennard calling it 'gorgeous, subtle and heartfelt work' and Katie Donovan praising his 'distinctive combination of savagery and ennui'. Comes with a dreamy cover by Ross Wilson!

Art Ó Suilleabháin’s first collection Mayflies in the Heather was published with Revival Press and launched by poet Kevin Higgins, who described his work as deeply rooted in the Irish language and tradition 'but the voice in which they speak is gloriously twenty first century' 🦋

Benjamin Keatinge recently published his essay 'Harry Clifton's Borderland' — 'the epistemology of Harry Clifton's poetry is moulded around his focalising of the gap between self and world...' — in Borders and Borderlands: Explorations in Identity, Exile and Translation.

Nithy Kasa's poignant poem 'Charcoal Iron' was featured in the Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation film series with Poetry Ireland, and is being broadcast as part of the Mountains to Sea dlr Book Festival book festival this weekend. The film is free to view online, no booking required: mountainstosea.ie/events/charcoa…

Versatile, multifarious poet David Morgan O'Connor took home the 2021 Cúirt Festival New Writing Short Story Prize! Colin Barrett, prize judge, praised the story's ‘formally inventive, effervescent and mischievous’ take on race and cultural dislocation:

irishtimes.com/culture/books/…

Molly Twomey received the inaugural Eavan Boland Mentorship Award, established by Jacar Press. Molly cited Eavan's work and legacy as empowering her 'to write about my own experience and that of the women around me, often through the guise of mythology.”

jacarpress.com/news/

Joanne McCarthy and co-founder Derek Flynn launched the inaugural issue of their new literary magazine The Waxed Lemon 🍋(Subs closed), with @mmegannnolan calling it 'a remarkable, sustained volley of brilliance and originality.' Supported by Creative Ireland, Issue #2 is due out in the summer! 🍋☀️