White House Poetry, 21st Apr 2010

What: Poetry reading with special guest Marian O'Rourke

When: Wednesday evening, 21st April 2010, from 9pm

Where: The White House pub, O'Connell Street, Limerick

A very special book launch takes place at the White House this Wednesday evening (Apr 21st, from 9pm), with Limerick poet Marian O'Rourke celebrating the publication of her debut collection, Inhaling the Light, from Lapwing Press. The honour of launching the book goes to award-winning poet and Aosdana and Cuisle Committee member, Ciaran O'Driscoll. Admission is free and the proprietors will provide complimentary finger food and wine reception to mark the occassion.

The night will also include an open-mic session, broken into two parts around O'Rourke's reading, and for which all comers are encouraged to contribute something they've working on and feel like sharing. So please, bring something with you just in case the mood strikes you.

Marian O'Rourke has lived most of her life in Canada and the USA. She has been a flower designer, a piano teacher, an office administrator, a health food store owner, a fashion weaver and a street belly dancer. While her home is once again in Limerick, she divides her year between Ireland and the USA.

Her poems have been published in a variety of journals both in Ireland, England, and Canada. She has read her poetry on WBAI Radio (New York City), and Lyric FM, and has performed at poetry events in Ireland, England, Canada and The United States. Her short stories have been accepted by Sunday Miscellany. Her chapbook, Uprooted, was published by Horn Press in 2008. Inhaling the Light, published in 2009 is her first full poetry collection. Marian holds an M.A. (Hons.) in Creative Writing from The Waterford Institute of Technology.

Of course, copies of Inhaling the Light will be available for purchase on the night should you enjoy what you hear, which the poet will sign for you with personalised messages.

Hope to see you there for what should be a very special night of poetry and festivity!!

White House Poetry, 14th Apr 2010

What: Poetry reading with special guest reader Maggie O'Dwyer
When: Wednesday, 14th April 2010, 9.30pm
Where: The White House pub, O'Connell Street, Limerick

This week at the White House Poetry reading series we proudly welcome Maggie O'Dwyer as our guest of honour. She will give a reading of poems from debut and Strong Award shortlisted collection, Laughter Heard from the Road, published by Templar. The evening will also have an open-mic reading session, to which all comers will be encouraged to read and share something they've been working on.

Maggie O’Dwyer was born in Dublin in 1951. Since graduation from art college in 1974, her work has been exhibited widely and included in The Royal Hibernian Academy exhibitions. In 2000 she won a Scholarship to The Eastern Washington University Writing Workshop and was awarded a place in the Poetry Ireland Introduction Series in 2007.

As well as being shortlisted for the Strong Award, she has been shortlisted in the Féile Filiochta International Poetry Competition and the satirical category of the Strokestown Poetry Festival. She has also been a winner of Templar Poetry's Pamphlet and Collection Prizes, which led to publication of the volume Yes, I'd Love to Dance.

Her book, Laughter Heard from the Road, will, of course, be available to purchase on the night should you enjoy what you hear and want a little more, and these, naturally, the poet will sign with personalised messages for those interested.

Admission is, as ever, free, and the proprietors of the White House will provide complimentary finger food. See you there!!

White House Poetry, 07th Apr 2010

What: Poetry reading with special guest Fergus Costello

When: Wednesday, 07th April 2010, 9.30pm

Where: The White House pub, O'Connell Street, Limerick

This Wednesday (Apr 7th from 9.30pm) at the White House we welcome Fergus Costello, a combined poet, musician, comic, and storyteller for what will surely be another great evening of poetry. Fergus will treat us to a selection of the work that won him the title of Cuisle Limerick City International Poetry Festival Slam Champion for 2009/10.

The night will of course be complete with the usual open-mic session, and all comers will be encouraged to contribute something here, so if there's anything you've been working on and would like to share bring it along.

As per usual, admission to the event is free, made possible due to the continued support of the Arts Council of Ireland, and finger food will be provided with the compliments of the White House proprietor.

If you would like a taste or snippet of what Fergus Costello does, you can see clips of his performance at On The Nail a few months back on YouTube.

The night will of course by hosted as ever by the mercurial Barney Sheehan, and is sure to be a great event. Hope we'll see you there!!

White House Poetry, 31st Mar 2010

What: Poetry reading with special guest poet Evelyn Casey
When: Wednesday, March 31st 2010, 9.30pm
Where: The White House pub, O'Connell Street, Limerick

This week at the White House Evelyn Casey will read a selection of her work, collected over the many years she has been writing, including fourteen years spent living in the north of Germany. The evening will also include and open-mic session to which all comers are encouraged to contribute to, so bring along something you've been working on to share.

Evelyn Casey is working as a health and fitness trainer and consultant at the University of Limerick Sports Arena and is a regular contributor to the Revival nights each Wednesday at the White House bar.

Thus far she has been published in Revival poetry journal, with many more sure to come. Her poems are often personal and passionate and Casey is a highly accomplished reader and performer of her work.

Admision to the event is free of course and as usual finger food will be provided compliments of the proprietor of the White House. See you there!!

White House Poetry, 24th March 2010

What: Poetry reading with special guest poet Paul Casey

When: Wednesday, 24th March 2010, 9.30pm

Where: The White House pub, O'Connell Street, Limerick

At the White House this week, we welcome back long-time supporter Paul Casey, the man responsible for the establishment and organisation of the weekly O Bheal reading series at the Long Valley in Cork (http://www.obheal.ie/).

The night will be complete with the usual open-mic session to which all comers may and will be encouraged to contribute, so bring poems on the night, or a song, or short piece of fiction... Admission as ever is free and finger food shall be provided complements of the White House proprietor.

Paul Casey will read a selection of his work, including pieces from his recently published collection of long poems, It's not All Bad.

Casey is one of Cork and Munster's most important poetry promotors and activists, with the O bheal series now running for over three years and attracting such guests as Macdara Woods, Derek Mahon, Kevin Higgins, Richard Tillinghast.

White House Poetry, 17th March 2010

What: Poetry reading with special guest reader Jane Weir

When: Wednesday, 17th March 2010, 9.30pm

Where: The White House pub, O'Connell Street, Limerick

This Paddy's Day at the white House is a very special night of poetry. Jane Weir will read a selection of work from her collections The Way I dressed During the Revolution, Before Playing Romeo, and the forthcoming, Gazehound, written about the lives of women during the Italian Renaissance. The night will be complete with the usual open-mic and we would encourage all comers to contribute. Admission is of course free and finger food provided compliments of the proprietor.

Jane Weir will be accompanied on the night by Alex McMillen, editor of Templar Press, and he will be giving a talk about publishing and, specifically, about Templar's Pamphlet and Collection competitions, the deadline for which is early May - essential to all poets with publishing aspirations. Considering the current financial climate and the backlogs at many presses, this could be the best way in.

Jane Weir is Anglo-Italian. She was the overall winner of the Wigtown Poetry Competition in 2008, joint winner of the first Jackson Dawson Award for Poetry (2003) and her first collection, The Way I Dressed During the Revolution, was shortlisted in 2006 for the Glen Dimplex New Writers Award. She has also published a pamphlet, Alice, based partially on the life of the early twentieth century Derby political activist, Alice Wheeldon.

Her latest book, Walking the Block, is a poetic biography based on the lives of the Modernist handblock printers and textile artists, Phyllis Barron and Dorothy Larcher, who created a unique range of hand block printed naturally dyed textiles between the two World wars. Jane has also recently completed an adaptation of Walking the Block, as a radio play.

poetry has been widely published in anthologies and magazines including Out of Fashion (Faber: 2005), Answering Back (Picador: 2007), PN Review, Ulster Tatler (2008), The Forward Book of Poetry (2007, 2008) and the International Sonnet Competition Prize Anthology (2008). Her winning poem from the 2008 Wigtown Poetry Competition, ‘On the Recommendation of Ovid We Tried a Weasel’, is one of two published in the 2009 Forward Book of Poetry.

If you would like to know more you can visit Jane's website at http://www.janeweir.co.uk/

White House Poetry, 10th Mar 2010

What: Poetry reading with special guest Richard Tillinghast

When: Wednesday, March 10th, 2010, from 9.30pm

Where: The White House pub, O'Connell Street, Limerick

At the White House this week we will be treated to a reading from Tennessee native Richard Tillinghast, who had recently published his Selected Poems with Dedalus Press. He will be joined on the night by his partner, the poet Grace Wells, so it promises to a great evening of poetry.

We will of course have the usual open-mic, too, to which all may and will be encouraged to contribute - bring some poems and see if the mood strikes you!! Some extra colour and atmosphere on the night will be added by the visit of a creative writing class all the way from Norway, whom we'll look forward to welcoming to Limerick. Our resident Master of Ceremonies, Barney Sheehan, will have to be on his best behaviour, and anyone who knows him knows what that means!!

Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, Richard Tillinghast first came to Kinvara, County Galway, for a year in 1990 on an Amy Lowell travel grant and has long since been a distinctive presence on the Irish literary scene. He now lives in South Tipperary. Selected Poems is his tenth book of poems.

He is also the author of three non-fiction works including Damaged Grandeur, a critical memoir of Robert Lowell, with whom he studied at Harvard, and Finding Ireland: A Poet’s Explorations of Irish Literature and Culture. With his daughter, Julia Clare Tillinghast, he has recently published Dirty August, a selection of their translations from the Turkish poet Edip Cansever.

Tillinghast has also been active as a critic, travel writer and book reviewer for The Irish Times, The New York Times, and other periodicals. He has received grants from the Arts Council of Ireland and the National Endowment for the Arts, among others, and in 2008 was awarded an honorary D.Litt. by the University of the South (Sewanee).