Reading at ILFD, 23rd May 2022
Three compelling poetic voices converge in a lyrical conversation on the state of the art – and the world.
Louis de Paor, Valzhyna Mort, and Jessica Traynor are unique and distinctive artists in their own right and united, it would seem, only by the fact that all three are poets. But in Louis’s preoccupation with the passing of time, in Valzhyna’s articulation of historical violence, in Jessica’s evocation of the complexities of female experience, we see a common thread of humanity. We see the power of poetry to offer society a perspective on itself.
Louis de Paor is an Irish poet, born in Cork in 1961. He was an instrumental figure in the Irish language poetry renaissance of the 1980s and 1990s. A poet and translator from Belarus, Valzhyna Mort moved to the United States in 2005 where she teaches at Cornell University. A multi-award winner, she performs in both Belarusian and English. Born in Dublin in 1984, Jessica Traynor is an award-winning poet, essayist, and librettist. She has been awarded the Hennessy New Writer of the Year, the Ireland Chair of Poetry Bursary, and the Listowel Poetry Prize.
Join us for an evening bearing witness to history and to the complexities of the present day, and to celebrate publication of three great new poetry collections.
