MOLOCH

Weird Tales in Galway Museum, with Rab Swannock Fulton

2010-11-09T03:32:00.000-08:00

Fans of strange, dark and comic tales are invited to join award winning storyteller Rab Swannock Fulton in Galway City Museum for a series of readings and performances over four tuesdays in November and December. Renowned locally and internationally as a master of the weird, Rab will be performing old and new folk tales, beginning with Rab's version of 'Cupid and Psyche' an ancient meditereanean tale of love, lust, treachery and bloodshed. Rab will also be reading extracts from his latest novel, a ghostly murder mystery set in the far future entitled 'Marcus Marcus and the Hurting Heart'.

The Weird Tales take place on November 16th, 23rd and 30th, and December 7th.
Time: 8pm.
Price: 8 Euro.
Contact 087 654 5411

For more see www.myspace.com/rabswannockfulton & www.facebook.com/rab.fulton

Edible Art

2010-09-13T09:01:00.000-07:00

Moloch artist Nessa Darcy is planning a trip to Madagascar in April, to work with lemurs and the poor (go figure.) To help fund her trip, she's set up this great website, Cakes for Lemurs. If you live in Dublin, you can commission a cake of any kind from her - and I promise you'll be delighted!

See you at the Irish Writers' Centre!

2010-07-29T09:35:00.001-07:00

Don't forget to come to the Irish Writers' Centre tomorrow night for Molochy readings, music and wine. We have a lovely evening planned, featuring such luminaries as Jack Harte, Stephen Kelly, Paul Perry, Jude Shiels and Geraldine Mitchell. Clodagh spent this morning baking and concocting mystery punch, and Ailbhe has been practicing her best hostess grin, so don't let us down now!

Come along around 7pm or wander by in the hours after that, and bring your listening ears. The Centre is at 19 Parnell Square, just around the corner from the Gate and across the road from the Garden of Remembrance.

Jack Harte will read at Moloch launch night!

2010-07-15T03:04:00.000-07:00

Jack Harte, the acclaimed novelist and short story writer, will read at our launch night on Friday July 30th in the Irish Writers' Centre.

Jack's first novel In the Wake of the Bagger was described by the Irish Independent as "one of the great books about Ireland" and selected by Des Kenny, Ireland's most famous bookseller, as one of his 101 Irish Books You Must Read. His second novel Reflections in a Tar-Barrel, was first published in Bulgarian translation - the rights having been sold for five cases of vintage wine in a Sofia pub. Jack has also published several critically acclaimed collections of short stories and is a tireless activist for the Arts in Ireland.

The night kicks off at 7pm and all are welcome. Entry is free, though a donation is encouraged! Hope to see you there.

Readers confirmed for Moloch launch night

2010-07-14T04:48:00.000-07:00

Paul Perry, Jessica Reidy and Katelyn Ferguson will be some of the readers for our Moloch launch night on Friday 30th July.

Paul Perry is the author and editor of a number of critically acclaimed books including The Drowning of the Saints, Goldsmith’s Ghost, 108 Moons and The Orchid Keeper. He teaches creative writing for Kingston University, London, and University College Dublin and is Course Director in Poetry for the Faber Academy in Dublin. His website is www.paulperry.ie

Jessica Reidy is from New Hampshire and at the moment lives in Co. Cork, Ireland. She has a BA in English and Creative Writing from Hollins University. Her poetry and flash fiction has appeared in various journals including Arsenic Lobster, Big Toe Review, and Frogpond, and is forthcoming in the Los Angeles Review.

Katelyn Ferguson writes poems occasionally and her work has appeared in NUI Galway's 'Ropes' journal. She is currently hard at work finishing up her doctoral thesis on the poetry of Brendan Kennelly at Trinity College Dublin.

The night kicks off at 7pm in the Irish Writers' Centre, 19 Parnell Square, Dublin 1. Admission is free and all are welcome.

Celebrate the latest issue of Moloch with us!

2010-07-13T07:56:00.000-07:00

Moon by Nessa Darcy

Join us as Moloch celebrates a new issue with readings, music and a glass of wine!

The issue features new writing from Paul Perry, Alan Jude Moore, Jack Harte, Geraldine Mitchell, Katelyn Ferguson, Jessica Reidy and many more. Artists include Daire Lynch, Maria Roche, Damien O'Reilly, Nessa Darcy, Derek Fitzpatrick and Sarah Quigley.

On the night, as well as readings from some of our poets, we'll have music from singer-songwriters Jude Shiels and Stephen Kelly. Jude's songs have been described by Colin Harper as "little screenplays conjured from the clouds" and Stephen's performance wowed the crowds at our last showcase in the Winding Stair bookshop.

The night kicks off at 7pm on Friday 30th July in the Irish Writers' Centre, 19 Parnell Square, Dublin 1. Admission is free and all are welcome.

The Atlantis Collective Launch Second Short Story Collection

2010-05-19T16:14:00.001-07:00

The Atlantis Collective Launch Second Short Story Collection

The Atlantis Collective launch 'Faceless Monsters' at The Irish Writers' Centre on Friday May 21st. The short story collection contains new work from the eight members of the group who have been meeting on a weekly basis in the Galway Arts Centre for the past two years. This is the second book by the group. Last year's debut 'Town of Fiction' was described by Des Kenny as ‘an important collection’ containing 'gems of stories'.

Though the individual styles of the writers may vary, when it comes to the quality of the work they have plenty in common, according to contributing editor Nuala Ní Chonchúir. ‘Each writer draws from a separate well – there are the humorists and the dark-lovers, the long-short writers and the flash aficionados – but they are all clearly dedicated to achieving excellence in their art.’

The launch of ‘Faceless Monsters’ takes place in The Irish Writers' Centre, Parnell Square, Dublin 1, at 7pm. There will be refreshments and readings. Copies of the book will be available on the night and also through the Atlantis Collective website, www.atlantiscollective.com

The Atlantis Collective are Colm Brady, Alan Caden, Dara Ó’ Foghlú, Aideen Henry, Trish Holmes, Paul McMahon, Conor Montague, and Máire T. Robinson.

Milk and Cookie Stories VII, Disaster Stories

2010-05-11T07:17:00.000-07:00

Milk and Cookie Stories VII

featuring a theme – Disaster Stories, and the Milk & Cookies BAKE-OFF!
Doors 6.30pm, Tuesday May 11th, Exchange Dublin

RUN! Milk & Cookie Stories are terrified to announce their latest event, in association with Exchange Words, is hurtling through space towards us and is due for impact this Tuesday May 11th in Exchange Dublin. Doors open at 6.30pm (and not before), the show starts at 7pm, and with any luck you will have survived the whole ordeal, learned to put aside petty differences and be ready to head home around 10pm. This lifeboat fills up fast, and they don't take reservations; so make sure you're at the front of the panicked swarm of extras.

Milk and Cookie Stories is for anyone who has a story to tell, or wants to hear a tale told well, in a relaxed, friendly environment ~ a place with tea, cushions, cookies and friends. The event consists of open mic storytelling, with one or two featured storytellers. Our event is free and everyone is welcome.

The theme this month is Disaster Stories! Hopefully if you're looking for something to tell, this might offer a eruption of inspiration. You don't have to stick to the theme (and the interpretation is wide!), they encourage stories of all kinds; traditional, animation, musical, anything as long as it's a story – the House Rules are available on their website, http://www.milkandcookiestories.com/

The BAKE-OFF! is also returning, bruised and doughy, to strike terror and inspiration into the hearts of the baking community – one cookie will rise above the rest, and the winner shall be carried through the streets, and given prizes. More details are again available at the website.

[ art@work ] Artists’ Residency Programme

2010-03-08T07:18:00.000-08:00

Roscommon Arts Office seeks interest from artists who wish to participate in the 2010

[ art@work ]

artists’ residency programme

As part of art@work, artists from any arts discipline, spend three weeks in a company or service in County Roscommon making work motivated by the environment, staff and working practices of the company Since its inception in 2001, the art@work programme has continued as a unique outlet for contemporary art to be integrated into society – introducing not only art, but also artists, and the processes of making art, to new audiences.

Artists are not necessarily expected to make work collaberatively; rather the artist is simply making work for a period of time in a different place of work than usual. Quite naturally however, the work is clearly influenced by the artists’ adopted environment, relating strongly to that particular situation thus providing a greater interest and involvement in the work from staff.

To the artist art@work offers the opportunity to explore different methods of working and to produce work in a unique context that allows for greater participation in the creation of the work. To staff at the company, art@work stimulates a pride and recognition of the value and nature of both the artists work and the work of the company. To the company the programme offers a valuable and unique advertising platform in both a local and national context as well as being an innovative project which reflects well on the company from many perspectives.

Last Year Create collaborated with Roscommon County Council Arts Office to produce a publication which further investigated the experiences of those involved, providing a rich insight to the motivations, processes and outcomes of each of the residencies. Sarah Tuck, Director of Create said that “the art@work programme provocatively re-inscribes arts practice as work, whilst simultaneously acknowledging the creativity of work itself. In situating the artist in work contexts, both the artists and the staff have an occasion to reappraise what it is that they do as part of the daily routine and ritual of working life.”

How the programme works –

Initially companies and artists are separately asked to express their interest in becoming involved in the programme. From this a one day group site visit is arranged where artists together visit each of the participating companies. From this the artist can prepare a proposal as to how they would approach the residency at their chosen company or companies.

How to get involved –

If you are interested in participating in art@work, simply email artsoffice@roscommoncoco.ie or call 090 66 37285 to register your interest before Friday 26^th March, after which a day of site visits will be arranged to participating companies. A full list of participating companies will not be available until April but previous participants are listed below.

The Proposal –

The proposal is not a definite “in stone” document but rather an indication of how the artist would complete the residency if their course did not alter during it. This is essentially an indication of the artist’s methodology and their understanding of the company. We would expect that the residency itself would dictate how the work would progress and that it would, in the end, substantially differ from the original proposal, but in order to decide who participates and how appropriate or feasible an artist’s residency is likely to be, we assess proposals only on the information and CV submitted. An artist can submit as many proposals as they like for as many companies as they like.

Schedule –

Registration Before Friday 26^th March

Site Visits Mid April

Proposals Mid May

Residency June – September

Publication October

Fees –

Residency €500 per week

Materials/ Travel Subsidy €500

Accommodation Subsidy €500

Further Information –

www.roscommonarts.com or 090 66 37285

Philip Delamere

County Arts Officer

Roscommon County Council, The Courthouse, Roscommon, Ireland

T +353 9066 37285 | F +353 9066 34443 | E mailto:artsoffice@roscommoncoco.ie | Whttp://www.roscommonarts.com

Exhibition of Letters from Famous People at the National Library

2010-02-13T04:20:00.000-08:00

Exhibition of Letters from Famous People Now Open at the National Library of Ireland

Broadcaster and comedian Graham Norton presided over the official opening of the exhibition Discover Lifelines at the National Library of Ireland marking the 25^th anniversary of the Lifelines project at Wesley College, Dublin which has raised over €100,000 for Concern and the developing world.

Discover Lifelines: letters from famous people about their favourite poems reveals the thoughts and poetic choices of a wide variety of people from government ministers to priests, poets, activists and actors including Margaret Atwood, John Banville, Sebastian Barry, Maeve Binchy, George Hook, Dermot Bolger, Richard Dawkins, Judi Dench, Dermot Desmond, Roddy Doyle, Margaret Drabble, Garret FitzGerald, Roy Foster, Sir John Gielgud, Seamus Heaney, Jeremy Irons, John B Keane, Brendan Kennelly, Marian Keyes, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Graham Norton, Joseph O’Connor, Tom Stoppard, Mother Teresa, William Trevor and many others. The exhibition shows people’s belief in poetry and how in its unique and quiet way, poetry endures and enriches lives.

Lifelines began in a classroom in Wesley College in 1985 and first saw the light of day as a little Gestetnered stapled booklet. Three other booklets followed and their sell-out success resulted in the book Lifelines, published in 1992, Lifelines 2 appeared in 1994 and Lifelines 3 in 1997. The Lifelines anthologies include contributions from five Nobel Laureates and the project was much praised: Iris Murdoch described it as ‘such an excellent project and such good reading’, and Graham Norton noted: ‘Finally, a book that puts poetry in the “loved-it” pile, rather than the “must-get-around-to-reading” pile.’ A selection from Lifelines was published by Penguin in 1993, and a further volume, a New and Collected edition, published by Townhouse in 2006. Unusually for a poetry book, Lifelines featured prominently in the Best-Seller lists.

All correspondence, photographs and other related archive material relating to Lifelines was donated to the National Library of Ireland by Wesley College and today, replies from over 650 people who responded to the pupils’ appeals are preserved in the Library. Discover Lifelines is available as a travelling exhibition for schools, libraries and other venues nationwide.

Discover Lifelines, National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2. Admission Free. Lifelines New and Collected available from the National Library shop (€12) . See www.nli.ie for further information.

No Grant for the Irish Writers' Centre

2010-02-07T09:35:00.000-08:00

We are very disappointed to hear that the Irish Writers' Centre did not receive any Arts Council funding for 2010. I started volunteering in the IWC six months ago and have been overwhelmed by the passion and commitment the board and staff have for the both the Centre and Irish Literature. Do check out the website, www.writerscentre.ie

No Grant from the Arts Council

The Board’s Response

The Irish Writers’ Centre is extremely disappointed that the Arts Council has rejected its application for a grant for 2010. Until 2009 the IWC received an annual grant to enable it function as an organisation providing a venue and a service to writers and the public, but the grant was withheld last year on the basis of a value-for-money assessment. Over the past year the Centre has addressed all the criticism and misgivings that led to the withholding of the grant. It has renewed itself and reformed entirely. Through the efforts of the Board and a team of voluntary staff we have now established a vibrant and exciting centre, open from morning to night, open Saturdays, with readings, events, workshops, meetings, all progressing non-stop. We have opened up a home-from-home where writers and readers can converge for literary business and literary pleasure. We have ensured that there is one place in Dublin where writers from abroad can come to interact with their Irish colleagues. This supreme effort has been made to demonstrate how effectively the Centre can cater for the needs of writers and readers, but it cannot be maintained indefinitely without funding.

Writing is the national art form of Ireland; more than with anything else, our national identity is associated with writing. But the allocation of resources does not reflect the primacy of literature, quite the contrary, despite the enormous economic contribution that literature makes to the country through cultural tourism. The Writers’ Centre has been given the most enthusiastic support by the whole literary community over the past months. Everyone has shown anxiety for its survival as a venue for showcasing contemporary Irish writing, encouraging new writing, providing writers with one physical location which belongs to them: a writers’ house. Within the literature community there has been a consensus endorsing its case for funding. It is therefore all the more baffling and disappointing that the Arts Council has not responded to that clear wish of the literature community.

Dublin has lodged an application to UNESCO for a special designation as a ‘City of Literature’. If this is granted, Dublin, and Ireland, will be able to exploit this status to enhance its cultural profile and its attraction to cultural tourists. But the designation will be granted and maintained, not in recognition of our glorious tradition, but on the vibrancy of the contemporary writing environment and on the infrastructure that exists to sustain and develop that vibrancy. In view of this, the decision of the Arts Council to jeopardise the Irish Writers’ Centre is myopic in the extreme.

Last autumn when the Arts Council faced the spectre of a catastrophic cut in funding for the arts, they issued a call-to-arms and asked the writers to join the vanguard on the basis that literature was demonstrably our extraordinary performer in the arts arena. Reasonable damage limitation was achieved, but the recent grant allocations to literature do not reflect the enormous esteem for writers and writing the Council espoused just a few months ago.

London: Pilot Pamphlets

2009-12-20T07:58:00.000-08:00

Cover image for A Fictional Dress by Nessa Darcy and Conor Friel

Come and celebrate the launch of two new tall-lighthouse pamphlets, A Fictional Dress by Ailbhe Darcy and The Stream by Simon Pomery with readings from the collections.

The double launch kicks off on Tuesday the 5th of January at 7pm, at the Wheatsheaf pub, 25 Rathbone Place (just off Oxford St) in London.

Ailbhe Darcy has published poetry in Ireland, Britain and the US, and is the co-editor of Moloch. A Fictional Dress is her first solo publication and her first full collection is forthcoming from Bloodaxe in 2010.

Simon Pomery was born in Galway, Ireland, and grew up in the Peak District, Derbyshire. He studied English at the University of Leeds and Pembroke College, Cambridge. The Stream is his first pamphlet and is the latest in the tall-lighthouse pilot series, edited by Roddy Lumsden.

Irish Writers' Centre Culture Night 25-09-09

2009-09-24T08:18:00.000-07:00

Culture Night at the Irish Writers' Centre

The Irish Writers' Centre is opening up its doors for culture night (Friday the 25th of September), with readings throughout the night, tours of the building and a chance to see the beautiful collection of paintings on loan from Frank Buckley. To add to the occasion the centre will be selling hundred of its books for a song – prices will start at 2euros.

The first readings will begin at 7.30pm and will be hosted by the Thornfield Poets. Among the line up is Catherine Dunne, Susan Connolly, Cecilia McGovern, Maggie O'Dwyer, Helena Nolan, Colette Connor, and Enda Coyle-Greene.

Sapphire Writing Group will then host the second wave of readings from 9pm. The line up includes many writers who frequent the Centre, like Phyl Herbert, Sile Agnew, Cathy Sweeney, Richard Stevens, Sheila Purdy, Gerry Moloney, Mary Heneghan and Ross Skelton.

There will be lots of staff on hand to show you around, caffeinate you and give you the lowdown on the courses and events that will be taking place in the Irish Writers' Centre in the coming months.

So do come admire the art, the ceilings, the walls of books and listen to some readings, or simply sit in the beautiful building in Parnell square and enjoy a coffee.

Exchange Words

2009-09-21T13:56:00.001-07:00

Exchange Dublin is hosting their first spoken word evening,

'Exchange Words'.

Exchange Words, an evening inspired by the current spoken word

revival, will take place on the 9th of October from 8PM at the

Exchange in Dublin's Temple Bar. With more interest than ever in

storytelling, standup comedy, author readings, live radio theatre and

a burgeoning Irish performance poetry scene, now is the perfect time

to launch a regular spoken word showcase in the heart of Dublin.

Exchange Words will give comedians, writers, actors and storytellers

the chance to collaborate and develop their work for performance in a

welcoming, all ages, alcohol free environment.

The line up for their first event include Shinoxcy, a new all girl

sketch comedy group, including Roxanna Nic Liam, star of hit Absolut

Fringe play 'Rough'; the Crazy Dog Audio theatre- Ireland's number one

live radio theatre company, whose work has appeared on RTE Radio 1,

and on US radio; storytellers from new Dublin group Milk and Cookies;

and fresh from their packed out performances at this years Electric

Picnic, top International spoken word performers Cliff Horseman &

Andrej Kapor.

Tickets for the event are € 5 / € 3 concessions, and will be available

on the night.

About Exchange Dublin -

Exchange Dublin is a new collective arts centre in Temple Bar, Dublin

run entirely by young people and holding discussions, gigs, visual

arts and performance. Most projects originate from the autonomous

“Exchange Groups” that use the space as a hub for their activity.

Representatives from these groups form the general Exchange Dublin

Collective that programmes and coordinates events in the space. All

work is voluntary and no one is paid.

Press materials (including high resolution images) are available at

http://exchangedublin.ie/words, and at the Facebook group -

http://url.ie/2gcb

Anyone interested in performing at future events, or looking for more

information, can contact them at words@exchangedublin.ie, or call on 085

1036 392.

A Racket at the University of Notre Dame

2009-09-01T10:27:00.000-07:00

Okay, this one might be a bit of a leap for the Dubliners...But if you happen to be in the Midwest in October, you don't want to miss Rackett at Notre Dame.

They'll be doing their thang at 9:30 PM in the legendary Legends bar, on October the 28th.

(See here for what their thang is: http://www.myspace.com/rackett)

Rhythm guitarist Paul Muldoon will also be reading his poetry, at 7pm on the same day, in the McKenna Auditorium.

Both of these events are free, and everyone is welcome!

Dublin Poetry Workshops with Alan Jude Moore

2009-08-11T14:55:00.000-07:00

In September The Irish Writers' Centre will be holding a series of Poetry Workshops hosted by poet Alan Jude Moore. The workshops will take place every Thursday for 10 weeks from the 24th of September. Early booking is advised as workshop places are limited. You can secure your place by paying online at the Irish Writers Centre.

Alan read some of his work at the Moloch showcase last year, and appeared in the second issue of the journal. You can read his poems, Alphavile and Drift online.

Alan Jude Moore was born in Dublin. His two collections of poetry, Black State Cars (2004) and Lost Republics (2008), are published by Salmon Poetry. A third collection, Strasbourg, will be published by Salmon in 2010.

His work is widely published in journals and magazines, including Poetry Ireland Review, Cyphers, The Stinging Fly, Poetry Salzburg Review, Iota (UK) and Kestrel (USA). His poetry has also been published in Italian and Russian. He has been short-listed twice for the Hennessy Literary Award for New Irish Writing for his short stories.

He holds a degree in political science from Trinity College Dublin and his first publication was in the TCD literary magazine Icarus. He has since been published across Europe and North America and has given readings in Ireland, Italy, Russia and the USA. In 2007 he was a featured poet at the Riflessidiversi cultural festival in Umbria.

American poet and critic Michael S. Begnal discusses Moore's work in the context of contemporary Irish literature in his essay The Ancients Have Returned Among Us: Polaroid of 21st Century Irish Poetry (Avant-Post, Litteraria Pragensia 2006, ed. Louis Armand). Alan's work has been included in the anthologies Salmon: a Journey in Poetry (Salmon Poetry, 2007) and Jacobs Ladder II (Six Gallery Press, 2003). He lives in Dublin.

"What is necessary is to seek new forms and new language to express new ideas and experience. Moore is doing so, and that is what makes Black State Cars an important and essential collection."

- Michael S. Begnal in Poetry Ireland Review, issue 82.

A political undercurrent is always simmering, and when it is aligned with longing, Moore enacts a kind of magic: “remember to melt down your ring for me; / let all our promises be one last bullet” (Zapad). Paradoxically, it’s not the exoticism of Lost Republics which appeals so much, but its familiarity. An accomplished and intriguing book.

- Paul Perry, The Irish Times, Saturday 28th March 2009

This superb second collection finds Moore’s distinctive voice, established in 2004’s Black State Cars, resonating with a new clarity and confidence. Influenced by the neo-modernist tendency but not necessarily of it, Moore avoids the languid, lyrical tonalities striven for and sometimes reached by the majority of his contemporaries. Yet his work could by no means be described as prosaic. His is a robust, sinewy music that once adjusted to has a strangely entrancing charm.

- Billy Ramsell in The Stinging Fly, Issue 12 / volume two, Spring 2009.

19 Parnell Square Dublin 1

Tel: +353 1 8721302

Fax: +353 1 8726282

www.writerscentre.ie

Wrong way birds, taxidermy, and morally bankrupt leprechauns.

2009-08-08T14:06:00.000-07:00

It was my blood and the language

That has been spoken into my blood.

I decided to explore

This wild place.

from Disappeared Language by Duane Locke

A new issue of Moloch is now available to view online: http://www.moloch.ie/html/issue3/cover.html.

For the last few months we have been plagued by constant repetition of the 'R' word on the airwaves, and scandal after scandal surfacing. You can't turn on the radio or take a taxi without hearing about the abuse by the Israelis, the US army, the Iranian government, and the British army, innocent people going to prison, politicians on the take, horrendous murders, about all the bankers who dragged us into a whole lot of mess, about the builders being bailed out and the regular people who have lost their homes. Around the corner there is always another ism to deal with.

Moloch was a mythical figure to whom people sacrificed newborn children in the hope of wealth and success. Nothing could seem more horrifying to most of us today, and yet every radio station and newspaper tells us that the future generations have been sacrificed for transient treasures to a modern-day Moloch. It is an endless wave that can become an obsession and at times make you feel completely and utterly powerless. It is in times like these that language becomes at once threatened and vital.

Moloch is an eclectic journal of the eccentric and the conventional, the politician and the romantic, the psychiatrist and the mentally deranged. It does not adhere to one style or voice but grabs sounds and colours from all walks of life.

This issue of Moloch deals with progress, with all the dirty dealings of modern society, offering a contrast between the natural world of bogs and beaches and that of aeroplanes, televisions, and petty theft. It deals with the beautiful and the lighthearted, with some of the more pleasant things in life. It is true, as the cliché goes, that art holds up a mirror to society; but it's also a wonderful way to flip it off its feet, to stick red potatoes in our ears, dive into pink water, scream and create something a little more interesting, and a little less repetitive.

My tune is a chain saw symphony with crickets, with fish,

with wrong way birds that can’t read music,

all of this is home for me now. Like rain

that doesn’t rain. They make mattresses specially

for rooms at the centers of houses, to protect from

flying glass. From tornados. I sleep on a

mattress like that.

from Crazy by L. Ward Abel

Moloch is an Irish based e-journal of art and writing edited by Ailbhe Darcy and Clodagh Moynan. Tying different art forms together in new and refreshing ways, Moloch aspires to allow artists and writers to find inspiration in each other and, in doing so, add new dimensions to each others’ work.

The current issue contains writing by L. Ward Abel, Claire Askew, Patricia Byrne, Niamh Campbell, William Doreski, Noel Harrington, Alan King, David Kowalczyt, Duane Locke, Geraldine Mitchell, Jackie Morrisey, Kenneth Pobo, Sean Ryan and Peter Schwartz

Artists include Oisín Byrne, Conor Callan, Nessa Darcy, Carol Eakins, Derek Fitzpatrick, Gareth Humphreys, Laura Knowles, Sarah Quigley and Damien O'Reilly.

New Issue of Moloch

2009-07-29T15:33:00.001-07:00

It was my blood and the language
That has been spoken into my blood.

I decided to explore
This wild place.

from Disappeared Language by Duane Locke

The new issue of Moloch has just been launched.

This issue contains writing by L. Ward Abel, Claire Askew, Patricia Byrne, Niamh Campbell, William Doreski, Noel Harrington, Alan King, David Kowalczyt, Duane Locke, Geraldine Mitchell, Jackie Morrisey, Kenneth Pobo, Sean Ryan and Peter Schwartz

Artists include Oisín Byrne, Conor Callan, Nessa Darcy, Carol Eakins, Derek Fitzpatrick, Gareth Humphreys, Laura Knowles, Sarah Quigley and Damien O'Reilly.

Pinback Magazine

2009-07-26T13:14:00.000-07:00

Damien O'Reilly, an artist featured in Moloch, has hurled himself into the publishing world with the creation of a new magazine PiNBACK. PiNBACK is a new 40 page literature and art magazine based in Cardiff. The idea is to create a platform of expression both literary and visually for anybody willing to get their voice out there. The magazine will be available in selected shops around Cardiff, Wales and Dublin, Ireland.

Issue One is completed and will be available in shops soon. Currently PiNBACK is looking for literature of all sorts for issue two. Poetry, stories, articles and random thoughts. There is no theme or size limit. All submissions will be considered.

They are also looking for artists / designers as part of their Gallery
Section.
Email submissions (and any questions) to
pinback.magazine@yahoo.com

Pinback is also available to buy online directly from the publishers at http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=3991377

Over The Edge with readings by Ailbhe Darcy, John Corless, Tom Lavelle, Anthony Daly & John Liddy

2009-07-01T05:49:00.000-07:00

THIS FRIDAY, July 3rd

My esteemed partner in crime, Ailbhe Darcy, will be in Galway reading at the Over The Edge Summer Poetry Special at Sheridan’s Wine Bar. Since her relocation to Middle America her readings in Ireland have been few and far between, so do come along and catch it before she disappears again.

There is a wonderful lineup that night with John Corless, Tom Lavelle, Anthony Daly & John Liddy all reading. You can find them all from 8pm in Sheridan’s Wine Bar, 14-16 Church Yard Street, Galway.

Ailbhe Darcy has published poems in Ireland, Britain and the US, and writes critically for a number of publications including The Stinging Fly and Verbal. She recently appeared as part of the prestigious Poetry Ireland Introductions Series, and has read at the London Irish Centre, Poetry Café, RADA, Dublin’s Liberty Hall and Keats’ House. She has just embarked on a PhD in contemporary poetry at the University of Notre Dame. Her poetry features in the recently published anthology Voice Recognition 21 Poets For The 21^st Century(Bloodaxe) and will also feature in the generation defining anthology to be published by Bloodaxe early next year Identity Parade: New British and Irish Poets.

John Corless lives and writes in County Mayo in the Irish Riviera. His poetry is a mix of political, satirical, ecclesiastical and rural and has been described as Paul Durcan meets The Sawdoctors. He has an MA in Creative Writing from Lancaster University (2008) and is currently researching for a PhD. He writes poetry, fiction and drama. His work has been published in magazines and collections worldwide. Some of his poems have been referred to the Attorney General for approval. His creative writing classes in the Castlebar campus of GMIT are very popular. He hopes to be a full-time writer when he grows up. Thankfully, there's no evidence of that happening yet. His first collection of poems Are You Ready? was published recently by Salmon Poetry.

Tom Lavelle lives in Galway and works as the finance director of a manufacturing company. He is currently a participant in the Advance Poetry Workshop at Galway Arts Centre and as part of that group read his work at last year’s Clifden Arts Week. His poems have appeared in Revival, The Stony Thursday Book, Crannóg, Boyne Berries, West 47 online and The Cuirt Annual. Tom was shortlisted for the Cúirt Over The Edge showcase reading in both 2008 and 2009 and in the 2008 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition. This coming Autumn he will be embarking on an M Phil in Writing at the University of Glamorgan.

Anthony Daly was born in Galway in 1979. He gained a BA Degree in Classics and History from NUI. Galway. He has been writing poetry for about the past decade and has published several poems in the local press. He has acted with Selkie Theatre in 2008 in their production last summer of Goodwill, as well as in several other productions and shows over the last six years. Anthony has been a many time participant in the Cúirt Poetry Grand Slam, was a Featured Reader at the March 2005 Over The Edge: Open Reading and was shortlisted for the 2007 Cúirt Over The Edge Showcase reading.

John Liddy was born in Youghal, Co. Cork, grew up in Limerick and now lives in Spain. His poetry collections include Boundaries (1974), The Angling Cot (1991), Song of the Empty Cage (1997), Wine and Hope (1999), Cast-A-Net (2003) & The Well: New and Selected Poems (2007). La Barca de la Arena (a translation by Francisco Rivero in Spanish of The Angling Cot) & Poisionous Pleasure(a tanslation by John Liddy from Tosigo Ardento by José Maria Álvarez) were published recently. His work has been widely praised by critics such as Desmond O’Grady and Patrick Galvin. He lives in Madrid.

There is no entrance fee. All welcome. For further information contact 087-6431748.

Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing generous financial support of the Arts Council and Galway City Council.

http://www.overtheedgeliteraryevents.blogspot.com/

Pinback submissions

2009-03-03T05:46:00.000-08:00

PiNBACK is a new non-profit literature and art magazine based in Cardiff. Started by Damien O'Reilly, a wonderful artist who has contributed quite a lot of original work to Moloch over the years, it aims to create a platform of expression both literary and visually for anybody willing to get their voice out there. The magazine will be available in selected shops around Cardiff, Wales.

Currently PiNBACK is looking for literature of all sorts. Poetry, stories, articles and random thoughts. There is no theme or size limit. All submissions will be considered. Send them to damienoreilly@yahoo.com

The Jabberwocky Series

2009-02-20T18:33:00.000-08:00

We are bombarded with words everywhere we look. We want to make them good words.

T h e J a b b e r w o c k y S e r i e s intends to change the way poetry is read, and who reads it, by taking it out of unopened books and off the shelf, and placing it back in the world, where it will be seen. We want poetry on walls – gallery walls, brick walls, billboards, shop shutters. We want to use the spaces used to sell things to say things. We want people to be exposed to it, and interested in it, and moved by it. It is a new way to publish, a new way to communicate, and a new way to use the city.

Available Space is the first poetry exhibition in the series. It will open on the 12^th March, and is being held in an empty commercial property on the main square in Smithfield.

The exhibition is a collaborative project between The Dodo Collective, an emerging artists’ collective working in new media, and Alan Jude Moore, a Dublin poet. It will feature one poem by Moore, presented five times by the five artists. They will use film, projection, illustration and installation, challenging the view of poetry as a staid art form, and demonstrating the concept of reading it in a completely different way.

By using a dormant commercial space, and others blank spaces like it as the series goes on, we want to begin to use they city that we have made as a place to be lived in, and let it become a canvas for art and thought.

The theme of the exhibition is this idea of urban awareness - awareness of real life taking place in a place of business, and of how we communicate with each other and our environment in the hub of a city. The title, theme and location connect to draw attention to the way in which the successes and failures of the economy affect out physical environment, and incorporate the ideas of isolation and urban anomie.

Throughout T h e J a b b e r w o c k y S e r i e s, the themes, locations and collaborators will change, while remaining faithful to the constant project of putting words on walls. We plan to involve both budding and blooming writers and artists, creating a community of ideas and a new audience to hear and see them.

The Dodo Collective is Simon Mc Keagney, Suzanne Van der Lingen, Henderson, Grace McEvoy, Luobo Gelda.

The Poet Alan Jude Moore is a Dublin born poet whose work has been widely published in Ireland and abroad. His fiction has twice been short-listed for the Hennessy Literary Award for New Irish Writing, and has published two collections; Black State Cars, in 2004 and Lost Republics in 2008, both with Salmon Poetry. His work was recently included in MARKS, a collaborative project between the visual arts magazine Circa and Dublin literary magazine The Stinging Fly.

Two of Alan's poems, Drift and Alphaville, featured in the last issue of Moloch.

His unpublished poem ‘Pipeline’ will be the basis for the exhibition.

New Scottish Writer of the Year

2009-01-26T10:40:00.000-08:00

Claire Askew, a poet whose poem 'Clearance' will appear in the next issue of Moloch, has been nominated for New Scottish Writer of the Year 2009 for her work with Read This, One Night Stanzas and her own writing.

The awards are decided by public vote, so do go to the site and show her your support!!

Claire Askew's work has appeared in Poetry News, Poetry Scotland and The Edinburgh Review, among others, and was recently selected to appear in The Scottish Poetry Library's 20 Best Scottish Poems of 2008 anthology. Her first collection, The Mermaid and the Sailors, is due from Red Squirrel Press in summer 2009. Claire is the Editor in Chief of Read This Magazine, and also runs Read This Press and the writing advice blog One Night Stanzas. She lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Read some of her poems here

Free Art Friday, January the 23rd

2009-01-17T08:16:00.000-08:00

If you've missed the boat on handing in Free Art Friday it's not too late to take part! Simply print out this label and stick it on the back of your artwork (Label Link) and hang it up in Dublin somewhere. You should include your details on the Label so whoever finds it can email you!

Or if you simply want to find a treasure to brighten your home to make sure you go into town on Friday and see if you stumple upon some artwork!

One of the artists featured in last months issue is taking part; Will St Ledger is not new to the idea of giving away artwork, in a recent exhibition he encouraged his guests to attempt to steal his work from the gallery, those that were successful were allowed to keep the artwork.

Writers For Peace

2009-01-17T08:09:00.000-08:00

Poetry Ireland in association with Trócaire and Amnesty International have organised a reading of some of Ireland’s best writers, reading in response to the situation in Gaza. Each writer will read for 5-7 minutes at this non-partisan event.

Confirmed readers include Anne Enright, John F. Deane, Eiléan Ni Chuilleanáin, Colm Toibin, Susan McKay, Hugo Hamilton, Éilís Dhuibhne, Lia Mills, Macdara Woods, Ronit Lentin, Peter Sirr and Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill.

Venue: St Anne's Church, Dawson St. D2 Time: 6.30pm (sharp) - 8.30pm

T: 01 4789974

E: info@poetryireland.ie

www.poetryireland.ie

Over The Edge: Sixth Anniversary Reading with Tom French, Lisa Frank & Áine Tierney

2009-01-12T17:27:00.000-08:00

Over The Edge Celebrates Sixth Birthday with Reading by Tom French

The first ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ of 2009 takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, January 22nd, 6.30-8.00pm. The Featured Readers are Lisa Frank, Áine Tierney & Tom French. This is a very special occasion as it is now exactly six years since Over The Edge was born in Galway City Library in January 2003.

Lisa Frank was born and raised in Los Angeles, but spent most of the past ten years in the Pacific Northwest before moving toIreland in December, 2006. In 2005 she received her MFA in Creative Writing from Eastern Washington University. She has had work published in American literary journals, as well as an essay published in a university textbook on writing, and was awarded 2^nd and 3^rd place in Bad Kitty Films 2000 Short Screenplay competition. She currently works as a freelance editor.

Áine Tierney is from Rosmore, Co. Tipperary. She is a secondary school English teacher and has an MA in Writing from the National University of Ireland, Galway. Her writing has appeared in various magazines and newspapers. She recently had a short story published in the Silverfish anthology, which was funded by South Tipperary County Council’s Per Cent for Art Scheme. She is currently redrafting her first novel.

Tom French is a graduate of NUI Galway and the University of Limerick. His first collection of poems Touching the Bones(Gallery Press) was awarded a Forward Prize for Best First collection in 2002. In 2001 he read at the Cúirt Literature Festival. Recent poems of his have been published in http://www.themanchesterreview.co.uk/ . His second collection The Blood Line is nearing completion. He lives with his family in county Meath where he works for the library service.

There will be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. New readers are always most welcome. The MC for the evening will be Susan Millar DuMars. For further details phone 087-6431748.

Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing generous financial support of Galway City Council & The Arts Council.http://overtheedgeliteraryevents.blogspot.com

Under a Different Light by Daire Lynch

2009-01-06T07:39:00.000-08:00

The solo art exhibition of Daire Lynch, an artist we all love here at Moloch, will open in Galway next Monday.

The exhibition with feature varying mediums:- Watercolour, Oils and Photography, hence the title -Under a Different Light. Daire's art has been featured in the first two issues of Moloch, we were particularly drawn to his work as he posses a combination of imagination and skill that makes his art all that more interesting. You can see some of his work online at http://www.spindlefist.deviantart.com/.

So if you're in Galway in the next two months do check it out!!!

Dublin: Soft Blonde Moustache

2008-11-25T10:40:00.000-08:00

SOFT BLONDE MOUSTACHE

"hold your breath while you draw"

Monster Truck Gallery 4th- 16th Dec 2008

Collaborative singing and drawing collective Soft Blonde Moustache have announced their debut show and book launch at the Monster Truck Gallery this December.

The Moustache are artists Nessa Darcy, Mary-Jo Gilligan, Julia MacConville and Aileen Murphy. We at Moloch think that what they do is awesome. Since actually describing what it is that they do is quite difficult, it's probably best if you have a look (and especially a listen) at their MySpace Page: www.myspace.com/softblondemoustache

SBM member Nessa Darcy contributed art to the first two issues of Moloch, including the above detail from 'Sad Little Zoo'.

The collective have also announced the following events, as part of the exhibition:

Sunday December the 7th at 1.30pm
Favourite Food Picnic. Bring your favourite food, and we will have a delightful afternoon of shared flavours.

Friday the 12th at 7pm
Sound performance! soft blonde moustache improvise live.

Sunday the 14th at 1.30pm
Children's drawing workshop. please book in for this one, and then bring a little person for experiments with drawing...hooray! email softblondemoustache@yahoo.com

Bad Day in Blackrock by Kevin Power

2008-10-06T02:17:00.000-07:00

A few years ago a group of teenage boys kicked another boy to death outside Annabel's nightclub in Dublin. It was a controversial affair that sparked much debate in the media and, of course, in people’s everyday lives. The boys were mainly from well connected families and there were many accusations and murmurs that there punishment may have been more severe had they been from a different background. There have been quite a few incidents like this where kids from wealthy influential families manage to get away with horrendous crimes and many where rugby, the gentleman's sport, leads to very violent off pitch activities.

Bad Day in Blackrock is a fictional tale by Kevin Power influenced by that tragic night in South Dublin. While I have yet to read this novel and, as Ailbhe points out in her blog, there is always a chance of being exploitative when using real events in fiction, I have no doubt that this book will be a page-turner. Though it is yet to hit the shelves it has already caused sparks as you can see in the article in the Independent and the Irish Times.

Kevin Power was shortlisted in 2007 for RTE's Francis McManus Award and his story The American Girl is currently shortlisted for the Hennessy Award. I can say without doubt that Kevin is destined to dazzle us all with many books in his lifetime, and if you wish to buy the first (and I really think you should) Bad Day in Blackrock goes on sale on the 15th of October.

Dublin: The Open Wall

2008-10-01T08:03:00.000-07:00

The Open Wall runs creative writing workshops every second Wednesday, in Cassidy's on Westmoreland Street, Dublin, from 7.30pm-9ish.

The organisers have this to say about The Open Wall:

"After many years at a variety of creative writing workshops, we have started The Open Wall - a workshop where participants are not obliged to read aloud. Instead, we have 'The Open Wall' where, at the end of each workshop, participants can pin up their work if they want, so that we can read and discuss the works after on a more personal level.

Every fortnight a different person presents the workshop. The workshops can be made up of a variety of different exercises or guidelines using a number of different mediums (such as art, literature, music) designed to give the group inspiration about a certain topic or theme. Themes so far have included childhood memories, dreams, imagism and character development. "

Next workshop - Wednesday 8th October
Admission is free, except for the drink you buy at the bar!

Alan Jude Moore Book Launch

2008-09-25T06:09:00.000-07:00

Salmon Poetry, in association with Poetry Ireland, presents

the Dublin launch of three collections of poetry

Ground Forces

by Paul Allen

The Odor of Sanctity

by Michael Heffernan

Lost Republics

by Alan Jude Moore

Alan recently read some of his work at the moloch showcase, and appeared in the latest issue of the journal http://www.moloch.ie/html/alphavile.html http://www.moloch.ie/html/drift.html

His poetry has that rare ability to suck you in until you feel like you're crawling across maps and different landscapes alongside him. His poetry features many people and places, borderlands but there are no borders between his poems and their readers, you find yourself becoming immersed in his world.

Do go along and discover it for yourself!

Venue: The Unitarian Church, 112 St. Stephen's Green West, Dublin 2

Date/Time: Wednesday 1st October, 6.30pm

Writing Festival to Open With Humour

2008-09-25T05:35:00.000-07:00

IN CLAREMORRIS THIS COMING WEEKEND
Writing Festival to Open With Humour

The second annual Claremorris Literary Festival opens on Friday September 26th. and organisers, local writing group, The Mayo Writers Block, promise a humorous start with 'Happy Hour.' Happy Hour is an open mic session where visiting writers will read or perform their work. The only stipulation is that the piece has to be funny. Anyone interested in taking part is invited to attend on the night. Bring along your funniest pieces to Claremorris Library and share the fun. The event is sponsored by the McWilliam Park Hotel and a prize of a mid week break in the hotel will be awarded to whomever the audience on the night decide gave them the most enjoyment. Workshop facilitators, Susan Millar DuMars and Helen Falconer, will both read on the night also.

Workshops

The Festival programme includes workshops on Saturday, Sept 27th, on Short Fiction and Poetry.

Short Fiction with Helen Falconer 10-4 Clár IRD Ballyhaunis Rd Claremorris Saturday 27th September

Novelist Helen Falconer was born and brought up in London. She was educated at Camden School for Girls, Dartington School, Devon, and St. Anne's College, Oxford. She works as a book reviewer for the Guardian newspaper.

Her first novel, Primrose Hill, the story of a group of North London teenagers, was published in 1999. Her second, Sky High: A Novel (2003), depicts love, sex and violence in a forbidden relationship set against an urban landscape.

Poetry with Susan Millar DuMars Dalton Inn Hotel 1-0-4 Saturday 27th September

Susan Millar DuMars is an American born writer living in Galway. Her first collection of poems, Big Pink Umbrella, was published by Salmon in April, 2008. A mini-collection of her short stories, titled American Girls, was published by Lapwing in 2007. Susan and her husband teach creative writing, and organise the Over the Edge literary events that take place in Galway

Each workshop costs €25 and money with name and contact details must to sent to: Mayo Writers Block, c/o Clár IRD, Ballyhaunis Rd, Claremorris, Co Mayo. Places will be allocated on a first come first served basis. Booking essential.

Information on the festival is available on the website www.mayowriters.org or by calling Margaret 087 958 2004 or John 0879843900. Booking for the workshops cannot be taken over the phone, as they must be accompanied by the relevant fee to be considered for a place. MWB wish to thank the following for their support of the event; Mayo County Council, The McWilliam Park Hotel. The Dalton Inn, Clár IRD.

Bookings To: Mayo Writers Block, C/o Clár IRD, Ballyhaunis Rd, Claremorris, Co Mayo.

Check out the The Mayo Writers' Block Website at:
www.mayowriters.org - Ink All-Ireland Writers Group of The Year 2008

Over the edge reading with Orla Higgins, Des Kavanagh & Colette Bryce

2008-09-24T05:32:00.000-07:00

Acclaimed Derry poet for September Over The Edge: Open Reading

Over The Edge in association with Poetry Ireland presents the September Over The Edge: Open Reading in Galway City Library, St. Augustine Street, Galway on Thursday, September 25th, 6.30-8pm. The Featured Readers are Orla Higgins, Des Kavanagh & Colette Bryce.

Orla Higgins lives in Galway, loves to travel and wants to be a writer when she grows up. She works as a Business & Communications Consultant, primarily with arts and non-profit organisations. She also lectures part-time at NUIG with both the Department of Marketing and the Huston School of Film. Her first love is fiction but she has recently collaborated on writing a play titled 'For Pete's Sake'. She has been a serial attender of Susan DuMars’s creative writing classes and is now a student on the MA in Writing at NUIG.

Des Kavanagh hails originally from the Inishowen peninsula in Donegal. He has been writing for four years and is a regular participant in Kevin Higgins’s advanced Poetry Class at Galway Arts Centre. He also takes an active interest in folklore and local history and has chaired the McGlinchey Summer School in Inishowen for most of the past ten years. He recently co-edited the Irish language version of his father’s book, The Last of the Name. He has read his poetry at Westside Library and Clifden Arts Week.

Colette Bryce is originally from Derry; she now lives in Newcastle upon Tyne where she held the North East literary fellowship from 2005-2007. She has published three poetry collections with Picador, The Heel of Bernadette, The Full Indian Rope Trick and, this month, Self-Portrait in the Dark. The Observations of Aleksandr Svetlov, a pamplet, appeared in 2007. She was the winner of the UK National Poetry Competition in 2003 and of the Cardiff International in 2007.

As usual there will be an open-mic when the Featured Readers have finished. This is open to anyone who has a poem or story to share. New readers are always especially welcome. The evening will also see the announcement by competition judge Celeste Augé of the winner of this year’s Over The Edge New Writer of The Year. MC for the evening will be Susan Millar DuMars. For further details phone 087-6431748.

Over The Edge acknowledges the financial support of Poetry Ireland, Galway City Council and The Arts Councilhttp://overtheedgeliteraryevents.blogspot.com/

Kevin Higgins Book Launch

2008-09-01T08:47:00.000-07:00

Salmon Poetry, in association with Poetry Ireland, presents the Dublin launch of three collections of poetry this Wednesday. Kevin Higgins, who recently read at the Moloch showcase and whose poetry has appeared in Moloch, will launch his book Time Gentlemen, Please. Do go along and buy a copy, it is a brilliant book!

Big Pink Umbrella
by Susan Millar DuMars
(speaker Enda Coyle Green)

Torching the Brown River
by Lorna Shaughnessy
(speaker Noel Monahan)

Time Gentlemen, Please

by Kevin Higgins
(speaker Dave Lordan)

Venue: The UNITARIAN CHURCH,
112 ST. STEPHEN'S GREEN WEST,
DUBLIN 2
Date: Wednesday, September 3rd
Time: 6.30 pm
RSVP: jessie@salmonpoetry.com
www.salmonpoetry.com/

London: Wolf & Howler Double Launch

2008-08-01T03:46:00.001-07:00

THE WOLF MAGAZINE & THE HOWLER

A DOUBLE LAUNCH

(The Wolf 18 & Howler CD)
Featuring Poetry and Poets Who Play Music

TUESDAY 12TH AUGUST, 7.30pm

@ RADA Foyer Bar, Malet Street, W1, London.

ALVIN PANG

(One-off Reading from Leading Singapore Poet)

CHICKEN OF THE WOODS

(Christopher Twigg & Full Band)

NIALL MCDEVITT

(Commemorating Blake’s Death Day)

CL DALLAT

(Irish Poet & Musician)

INFINITE JUSTICE

(M.X.L. Waterhouse & Composer Omid Khorremy)

AILBHE DARCY

(Last reading before I go to America!)

Entry £5 (includes a free copy of The Wolf)

Hosts: James Byrne, Editor of The Wolf & Lee Scrivner, Producer of The Howler

To reserve seating email: thewolfpoetry@hotmail.com

Moloch showcase update

2008-07-30T05:14:00.000-07:00

An Evening of Poetry and Music

We are pleased to announce that Noel Harrington will also be joining us tomorrow night, July 31st, to read at the Moloch showcase.

The showcase will start at 7pm, in The Winding Stair, Ormond Quay, Dublin 1. We will have music and poetry from a few of our lovely talented crew, namely Kevin Higgins, Alan Jude Moore, Noel Harrington, Stephen Kelly, and The Perfect Consonants.

Drinks, cake, poetry, and music are all free but we do encourage you to leave a small contribution (if you can) so we can afford to bring you more nights like this, and more editions of the journal.

A recap of the line up

Kevin Higgins will be joining us from Galway. Kevin’s first collection of poems, The Boy With No Face, was published in February 2005. The collection was shortlisted for the 2006 Strong Award for Best First Collection by an Irish Poet. The Boy With No Face was Salmon Poetry’s bestselling book of that year and has recently been reprinted. Kevin’s second collection of poems, Time Gentlemen, Please, was published this year.

“His is a committed, engaged poetry, shot through with both humour and melancholy.”

– Juliet Wilson, in New Hope International Review.

http://www.myspace.com/poetkevinhiggins

Alan Jude Moore is a Dubliner whose poetry has been published in a wide range of journals here and abroad, including Poetry Ireland Review, The Stinging Fly, Kestrel (USA), Jacobs Ladder (USA), Pelagos (Italy) – and, of course, Moloch. He took part in the Poetry Ireland Introductions readings in 2001.

Alan’s collection, Black State Cars, was published by Salmon Poetry, and was the recipient of a Salmon Poetry Publication Prize for a first collection.

"What is necessary is to seek new forms and new language to express new ideas and experience. Moore is doing so, and that is what makes Black State Cars an important and essential collection."

- Michael S. Begnal, in Poetry Ireland Review.

http://www.myspace.com/alanjudemoore

Noel Harrington lives in Tulla, Co Clare. The White House Poets published a chapbook of his poems 'Trio' in 2007. He has also been published in The Stinging Fly, Revival, Moloch.ie, The Stony Thursday Book, Crannóg and the joint Limerick/Newcastle publication, Two Rivers Meet. A prose piece was short-listed for the Flosca Short Story Prize, appearing in the 2008 Anthology, and another was published by Mike Scott on the Waterboys website. He has been writing a novel for five years now and will let you know when it's finished.

http://www.myspace.com/noelharrington

Stephen Kelly is a talented poet and songwriter from Drimnagh, Dublin. He has been published in Watermarks and entertained the masses with wonderful readings in a variety of Dublin venues. His poem 'Ladybird' featured in the first issue of Moloch. One of his songs 'David' is currently featured on the Moloch myspace pages

http://www.myspace.com/molochjournal

The Perfect Consonants consist of Mark Noonan, Darran Kelly and Aoife McGrane. The band have been writing and playing songs together for the past two years. The Moloch night will be their last blast for the summer season. You can download a couple of their songs at

http://www.myspace.com/theperfectconsonants

Mark's series of City poems makes an appearance in the current issue of Moloch, while Darran's plays have been hailed by Irish play-writing legend Frank McGuinness

"that rarest of theatrical joys - the real thing!"

The Open Wall

2008-07-29T04:03:00.000-07:00

creative writing workshop,

Cassidy's on Westmoreland street,

July 30th @ 7.30pm.

The Open Wall

Spoken word begs for an audience to receive and participate in it, and with a good performer, the result can be wonderful.

The written word, however, is a solitary being. It is silently digested, there is no direct interaction with the author, and the voice is imagined.

While most writers workshops offer writers the floor after exercises so that they can read pieces aloud, writing intended for the page loses something essential.

The Open Wall is a creative writing workshop which offers a forum for writing and sharing words bound in ink. After each exercise participants are invited to stick any work they are happy to share onto 'The Wall'.

'The Wall', a simple notice board with simple pins, is a medium for presenting work to others, and it is open to everybody.

The Open Wall begins it’s creative writing workshops tomorrow night in Cassidy's on Westmorland Street.

Wednesday the 30th of July, at 7.30pm.

Workshops will take place every second Wednesday at 7:30pm, i.e. August 13th, August 27th…

Do check out their myspace pages for more information http://www.myspace.com/theopenwall

Succour call for submissions!

2008-07-22T04:42:00.000-07:00

Succour journal is accepting submissions for Autumn/Winter issue, the theme is Icons. So do send them any poetry, fiction and art you have floating about on that theme or create a new piece!

Succour is a great publication, its design and production are very high quality with very original material from talented writers and artists inside. You can pick up a copy in Books Upstairs or The Winding Stairs if you would like to read it first - below are the submission details.

Succour is the UK and Ireland's most exciting journal of new fiction, poetry and art. We have editors in London, Manchester, Brighton, Exeter and Dublin who are committed to seeking out and publishing the very best new writing.

We habitually set a title for upcoming issues, which we then ask contributors to respond to in their work. The theme for the Autumn/Winter 2008/2009 issue will be Icons. Potential contributors are invited to respond to the titles we suggest in as wilful or oblique a manner as they desire. Bear in mind that Succour is a journal that publishes original, ambitious writing, and tries to avoid anything clichéd or self-indulgent.

The Autumn/Winter 2008/9 issue is due for publication on 1 November 2008. Deadline for submissions is 20 August. Please send your work in Word or Rich Text format documents, with a limit of 3,500 words (fiction) or 250 lines (poetry), to new Dublin editor Christodoulos Makris at succourdublin@gmail.com.

If you are thinking about submitting your work, we strongly recommend that you read one or more of our back issues, to get a feel of how previous writers responded to the titles. In Dublin, Succour is available from Books Upstairs, The Winding Stair and the IFI Bookshop. You can also purchase copies of back issues or take out a subscription at www.succour.org.

The editors welcome comment and questions on any subject. We look forward to reading your work."

Moloch Showcase Night on Facebook!

2008-07-19T13:52:00.000-07:00

You can let us know you're coming along on July 31st (if you like!) by joining the Facebook group, here:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=21906678199

Moloch Showcase Night, 31st July

2008-07-14T01:38:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder about the Moloch Showcase Night, at Dublin's Winding Stair bookshop on Thursday 31st July.

As well as poetry from Kevin Higgins and Alan Jude Moore, we'll have music from:

The Perfect Consonants
Mark Noonan, Darran Kelly and Aoife McGrane have been writing and playing songs together for the past two years. This summer they've been gigging like nobody's business, and the Moloch night will be their last blast for the season. You can download a couple of their songs at http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=83473089
Mark's series of City poems makes an appearance in the current issue of Moloch, while Darran's plays have been hailed by Irish play-writing legend Frank McGuinness as "that rarest of theatrical joys - the real thing!"

and

Stephen Kelly
Stephen Kelly is from Drimnagh, Dublin. He has been published in Watermarks and entertained the masses with wonderful readings in a variety of Dublin venues. His poem 'Ladybird' featured in the first issue of Moloch.

Plus cake and wine! Doors open at 7pm. Admission is free, donations voluntary.

Dublin: Stinging Fly reading

2008-07-14T01:34:00.000-07:00

There’ll be a reading from the summer issue of The Stinging Fly on Thursday July 24th in the Winding Stair Bookshop, Lower Ormond Quay, Dublin 1 (across from the Hal’penny Bridge).

Grace Wells, the featured poet in the summer issue, will read alongside fiction writers Jennifer Brady and Orlaith O’Sullivan and poets Richard W. Halperin and Paul Perry.

The reading is at 7 p.m — all are welcome.

The Stinging Fly is a Dublin-based magazine of poetry and prose, established in 1997 to seek out, publish and promote Irish and international writing. They have a particular interest in encouraging new writers, and in promoting the short story form.

London: Shuffle

2008-07-08T08:17:00.000-07:00

The Shuffle in the Studio

26 July, 7.30pm

Valerie Josephs,
Ailbhe Darcy,
Richard O'Brien
and Karen McCarthy

with support from Inua Ellams, Kirsten Irving, Sandeep Parmar and Lin Sagovky

At the Poetry Café, Betterton Street, London (Covent Garden tube)

Moloch Showcase Poets

2008-06-10T09:02:00.000-07:00

I promised you more details about the Moloch night on July 31st, so here's who's going to read some poems...

In 2000, Kevin was chosen to read his poetry as part of the Poetry Ireland Introductions series. He has also read at the Cúirt International Festival of Literature, The Bowery Poetry Club in New York, and The Poetry Society in London, among others. In June 2002 he was a finalist in the Dublin Writers' Festival/Rattlebag Poetry Slam. His work has been broadcast on national as well as on local radio.

With his wife Susan, Kevin co-organises the Over The Edge literary events in Galway City.

“His is a committed, engaged poetry, shot through with both humour and melancholy.” – Juliet Wilson, in New Hope International Review.

Alan Jude Moore is a Dubliner whose poetry has been published in a wide range of journals here and abroad, including Poetry Ireland Review, The Stinging Fly, Kestrel (USA), Jacobs Ladder (USA), Pelagos (Italy) – and, of course, Moloch. He took part in the Poetry Ireland Introductions readings in 2001.

Alan’s collection, Black State Cars, was published by Salmon Poetry, and was the recipient of a Salmon Poetry Publication Prize for a first collection.

"What is necessary is to seek new forms and new language to express new ideas and experience. Moore is doing so, and that is what makes Black State Cars an important and essential collection." - Michael S. Begnal, in Poetry Ireland Review

Moloch at the Winding Stair

2008-06-09T09:10:00.000-07:00

Exciting news!

Moloch is hosting a night of poetry and shenanigans at the Winding Stair bookshop in Dublin.

It's on Thursday 31st July and it's going to be AWESOME.

We'll have a couple of our finest poets reading, songs from The Perfect Consonants, and more.
So score a big X on your calendars.

More details to follow....

London: Coffee-house poetry at the Troubadour

2008-06-05T06:04:00.000-07:00

mon 9^th jun, 8pm at the troubadour

poets on US poets:

brahic, corn, kapos & moore fuller

roethke, bishop, stevens & merrill

In Roethke’s centenary year, Coffee-House Poetry invites four contemporary North-American poets to read & discuss four great US poets: Theodore Roethke, Elizabeth Bishop, Wallace Stevens (see poem below) & James Merrill.

Contributors: Alfred Corn (b. Bainbridge, Georgia) is the author of nine books of poems including Contradictions (Copper Canyon, 2002) and writes art criticism for Art in America & ARTnews; Martha Kapos (b. New Haven, Connecticut) is assistant poetry editor at Poetry London—My Nights in Cupid’s Palace (Enitharmon, 2003) won the Jerwood/Aldeburgh 1^st collection prize; Canadian-born Beverley Bie Brahic lives in Paris & has translated Apollinaire, Ponge, Derrida & Cixous—her first collection is Against Gravity (Worple, 2005) and her Ponge translations are forthcoming from Faber; Janice Moore Fuller (3^rd collection, Séance, Iris Press, 2007) is Writer-in-Residence & Professor of English at Catawba College in Salisbury, North Carolina.

=====

Disillusionment of Ten o'Clock

The houses are haunted

By white night-gowns.

None are green,

Or purple with green rings,

Or green with yellow rings,

Or yellow with blue rings.

None of them are strange,

With socks of lace

And beaded ceintures.

People are not going

To dream of baboons and periwinkles.

Only, here and there, an old sailor,

Drunk and asleep in his boots,

Catches tigers

In red weather.

Wallace Stevens (Selected Poems, Faber, 1953)

Dublin: The Perfect Consonants at Naked Lunch

2008-06-02T08:51:00.000-07:00

In the last issue of Moloch we published poems by Mark Noonan; Mark also sings songs with The Perfect Consonants.

You can see who they are and listen to a couple of their songs here.

On Wednesday 25th June, The Perfect Consonants will be guest artists at Naked Lunch, Dublin's poetry/music open mic night at the Carnival Bar, Wexford Street. The night kicks off at 8pm; you might just want to be there.

Call for anthology submissions

2008-05-30T03:30:00.000-07:00

This from fabulous Forest Publications in sunny Edinburgh:


Dear all,

The following is a call for submissions for the new anthology from
Forest Publications. Please feel free to pass this along to writers
whom you think might be interested. Further, do not hesitate to contact
me with any questions regarding this project.

Below is the challange:

Never, ever trust a writer. They cluck and nod and listen and then three
months later they splash your tragedy/foolishness/very embarrassing
incident involving a raspberry jelly and a pair of warm curling tongs
over the tawdry pages of a literary quarterly. We feel there is no shame
in this. Quite the opposite: we believe this ugly fact deserves to be
celebrated with all the pomp and hullaballoo we can possibly muster.
Therefore we are compiling an anthology of the finest stolen stories,
the anecdotes and overheard conversations that simply demand to be told.
We feel that it is time to be honest.  This is where our ideas come from.

Stories should not exceed 5,000 words in length and must, must, must be
accompanied by a short note that explains the nature of your theft. We
would prefer that you did not steal from well-known television shows or
anything equally obvious.

Send your stolen story to:

stolen.stories.book@googlemail.com


Closing date for submissions: July 3rd

London: Poetry at the Irish Centre

2008-05-29T07:46:00.000-07:00

Thursday 3 July 2008, 8pm at the London Irish Centre

Readings from six poets:

Laurence Scott

Roisin Tierney

Susan Utting

Ailbhe Darcy

Racker Donnelly

Maggie Sawkins

Plus traditional Irish music from
Marie McCormack and Les Coughlan

Hosted by John MacKay and Viv Fogel

Admission £5 (conc. £3)

www.londonirishcentre.net

Dublin: Poetry Ireland Introductions Series

2008-05-12T06:18:00.000-07:00

The line-up for this year ’s Poetry Ireland Introductions series, offering a showcase reading to twelve poets working towards a first collection, is now finalised.

The venue for these readings is the Unitarian Church, 112 St Stephen’s Green West, Dublin 2. I'm assured there'll be a glass of wine for you if you come along.

Thursday 19 June @ 6.30pm
Padraig O’Morain, Mags Treanor,
Mary Mullen & Philip Quirke

Tuesday, 24 June @ 6.30pm
Sonia Abercrombie, Joseph Horgan, Leeanne Quinn,
Majella Cullinane & David McLoghlin

Thursday, 26 June @ 6.30pm
Tom Duddy, Ailbhe Darcy, John Mee,
Róisín Tierney & Michelle O’Sullivan

Poetry workshops with Kevin Higgins at Galway Arts Centre

2008-05-11T05:16:00.000-07:00

In May Galway Arts Centre is offering aspiring poets a choice of three poetry workshops, all facilitated by poet Kevin Higgins, whose best-selling first collection, ‘The Boy With No Face’, published by Salmon Poetry, was short-listed for the 2006 Strong Award for Best First Collection by an Irish poet. Kevin’s second collection of poems, ‘Time Gentlemen, Please’, was published in March by Salmon Poetry and his poetry is discussed in the recently published Cambridge Introduction to Modern Irish Poetry.

Kevin is an experienced workshop facilitator and several of his students have gone on to achieve publication success. One of his workshop participants at Galway Arts Centre recently won the prestigious Hennessy Award for New Irish Poetry, while another had her first full collection of poems published by one of Ireland’s major poetry publishers.

Each workshop will run for six weeks, commencing the week of May 19th.They will take place on Tuesday evenings, 7-8.30pm (first class May 20th); Wednesday afternoons, 2-3.30pm (first class May 21st); and on Thursday afternoons, 2-3.30pm (first class May 22nd).

The Tuesday evening and Wednesday afternoon workshops are open to both complete beginners as well as those who’ve been writing for some time. The Thursday afternoon workshop is an Advanced Poetry Workshop, suitable for those who’ve participated in poetry workshops before or had poems published in magazines. The cost to participants is €75, with an €65 concession rate.

Places must be paid for in advance. To reserve a place contact Victoria at reception at Galway Arts Centre, 47 Dominick Street, phone 091 565886 or email victoria@galwayartscentre.ie

Email Problems

2008-04-23T08:35:00.000-07:00

Our email spam filter decided to take matters into its own hands and has been eating a bit of our mail. If anyone received a failure notice or has had any problems submitting to the journal do try and send your material again!

We're hopeful that the problem has been resolved. If your emails still get rejected do let us know by hitting this thread!

Apologies for the inconvenience,

Clodagh.

2008 Cuirt Festival Over The Edge Showcase Reading

2008-04-22T05:33:00.000-07:00

The 2008 Cúirt Festival

in association with Ireland’s leading literary reading series presents the

OVER THE EDGE, Emerging Writers Showcase

Mary Madec
Megan Buckley
Fergal McNally
& Mary Mullen

11.00am, Thursday
April 24th
Town Hall Theatre

Mary Mullen is an Alaskan-born writer who has lived in south County Galway for a decade. Her work has been published in We Alaskans, Sunday Miscellany 2003-2004, The Stinging Fly, the Cork Literary Review, Galway Now, West47online, the Anchorage Daily News, and the chapbook The Whole Building Could Be On Fire. She is working on a collection of personal history essays and short stories. Mary is a graduate of NUIG’s MA in Writing programme. She is currently facilitating a memoir writing class at Galway Arts Centre. She was a Featured Reader at the January 2007 Over The Edge: Open Reading.

Fergal Mc Nally is originally from Navan. He enrolled at N.U.I.G in 2003 where he studied English, political science and sociology. In 2007 he graduated with a first from the university’s M.A. in Writing programme. He has twice had poetry published in ROPES magazine. His one act play Spilt Milk won best production in the 2007 Muscailt Festival one act play series. His work was displayed during Cúirt last year as part of DOCUMENT, a collaborative project between writers and artists. He is currently working on his first novel. He was a Featured Reader at the May 2007 Over The Edge: Open Reading.

Mary Madec was born in County Mayo. She started writing poetry about four years ago and since then has published in Crannóg, West 47, The Cúirt Annual, the SHOp, The Sunday Tribune, WOW and Iota among others. In Spring 2007 she was chosen for the Poetry Ireland Introductions; in July she was runner-up in the Raftery competition and chosen for the WINDOWS showcase and anthology. Last autumn she started up a community-writing project Away with Words for people with intellectual disabilities. Mary has just been short-listed for this year's Hennessy Literary Awards for New Irish Writing in the Emerging Poetry category. She was a Featured Reader at the November 2005 Over The Edge: Open Reading.

Megan Buckley is a Doctoral Teaching Fellow in the English Department at NUI, Galway, where she teaches seminars on nineteenth-century women's poetry. Her poems have been published in the US, the UK, and Ireland, in publications such as The Ledge (US), The Pedestal (US), eclectica. org (US); the Dazzle and Attract Project in Newcastle-on-Tyne, UK, in which one of her poems was projected onto the wall of a building (UK); Crannóg, ROPES, TribeVibes, and others. She collaborated with visual artists in DOCUMENT, 2005 and 2006, and she was shortlisted for the Over The Edge Writer of the Year Award in 2007. She was a Featured Reader at the November 2007 Over The Edge: Open Reading.

Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing support of the Cúirt international festival of literature, Galway City Library, Sheridan's Wine Bar, Galway City Council & The Arts Council.

http://overtheedgeliteraryevents. blogspot. com
http://www. galwayartscentre. ie

Nicola "Mammy" Jennings rocks the nation!

2008-04-18T09:13:00.000-07:00

Forgive the nepotism but.

My Mum has been shortlisted for a Hennessy Award! And I want everyone to know.

You can read her short story, 'Muscle Memory', here.

London, UK: Poetry at Leon

2008-04-17T07:34:00.000-07:00

PUSHPLAY

p o e t r y g o e s s o n i c

Poets with their fingers on the button. Charging up on a fusion of word and music. Mayhem and tenderness, intimate and open, two nights that will take you to the edge where page transforms into sound. Two nights with great food and Leon warmth too, so book your table of 5 or more now.

Track 1

Monday 21st April 2008, 7-9pm
Leon Spitalfields, 3 Crispin Place, E1 6DW
Tel: 020 7247 3287
featuring: Zorras, Shaun Levin, Jay Bernard

Track 2

Tuesday 22nd April 2008, 7-9pm
Leon Bankside, 7 Canvey St, SE1 9AN
(behind Tate Modern)
Tel: 020 7620 0036
featuring: Amphibia and Zorras

BOTH EVENTS ARE FREE

New Issue

2008-04-16T05:13:00.001-07:00

The latest issue of Moloch has just been launched.

With writing by Noel Harrington, John Holten, Alex Hughes, Andrew David King, Gavan Lennon, Chris Major, Alan Jude Moore, Christopher Mulrooney, Jim Murray, Aongus Murtagh, Mark Noonan, Joseph Robert, and Sean Ryan.

Artists include Conor Callan, Nessa Darcy, Eva Kelly, Will St Ledger, Sarah Quigley, Daire Lynch, Jeanne Merer, Mark O'Keeffe, and Damien O'Reilly.

Moloch on Facebook

2008-04-11T08:37:00.000-07:00

You can join the Moloch group on Facebook here.

Spring at The Cortland Review

2008-04-09T05:24:00.000-07:00

Spring brings the following from The Cortland Review editor Ginger Murchison:

Dear Reader,

As we turn the corner into April, The Cortland Review, rather than simply giving you more poetry, wants to honor the relationship of poetry to all the arts, particularly its relationship to its 'sister art' of painting, a link that began with Horace's phrase "ut pictura poesis" in "Ars Poetica"—"as in poetry, so in painting." Aptly, Debra Allbery begins her essay on ekphrasis with a definition:

. . . the word comes from the Greek rhetorical figure, ekphrassein, originally meaning "to speak forth" or "to tell in full"—is generally the term given to a verbal representation of a visual representation.

It's not only inspiration but instruction that poets take from the visual arts, and the poets Allbery mentions that invoke the work of Joseph Cornell are among your favorites, and she builds a case, as well, for how inspirational and instructional their work was to Cornell, enlightening us all as to the far reach of poetry. How can we better honor the art, then, for National Poetry Month?

For your own inspiration and instruction, we include three of Allbery's own ekphrastic poems and ten more from poets giving a nod, not only to the visual arts, but to music, photography, film, and one charming nod at (uh oh) body art.

For more music, enjoy McFadyen-Ketchum's conversation with Ed Pavlic on the subject of Pavlić's latest book: "Winners Have Yet to Be Annonced: A Song for Donny Hathaway," that he describes as

my attempt to articulate, to translate, what I hear in Donny's music and to imagine its origins, its contradictions and the way it fits and doesn't fit into a world . . . beyond the stage.

Carolyne Wright, in "A Change of Maps," pays homage of her own, as David Rigsbee points out in his book review. Her collection is

. . . less a concession to the spell of technique . . . than a kind of knowledge about poetry's secret sway and coterie wisdom and therefore of abiding interest to poetry's serious readers.

For all poetry is on the page, it continues to tap into and feed all of the cultural arts in an ever-widening way, enriching to all of us, a good argument, perhaps, that every month is really poetry month.

Ginger Murchison
Editor

The Cortland Review Spring Issue is here.

Galway, Ireland: Over The Edge presents An Evening of Polish Poetry

2008-04-08T07:32:00.001-07:00

Friday April 11th is the date for an evening of Polish poetry organized by Over the Edge at Sheridan’s Wine Bar, opposite St. Nicholas’s Church, Galway, with the help of Galway-based Polish journalist Magalena Szulc. Also reading on the evening will be Loughrea-based Polish writer, Kinga Cybulska. The evening is being supported by the Polish Embassy in Ireland. The reading will start at 8pm.

There will be readings from the work of the great Polish poets Halina Poswiatowska, Wislawa Szymborska, Zbigniew Herbert and Czeslaw Milosz and more. Verses will be read by volunteers in both Polish, and English. On top of that, some of Galway’s Polish residents will present their own poems to the audience. Galway’s Writer-in-Residence Michael O’Loughlin will also read some of his favourite Polish poems. Kevin Higgins will MC the evening. All are welcome.

http://overtheedgeliteraryevents.blogspot.com

Cambridge, UK: Pat Borthwick and Kate Rhodes read at Michaelhouse

2008-04-08T05:23:00.000-07:00

Pat Borthwick and Kate Rhodes read at Michaelhouse, on Trinity Street, tonight. The event also features short poem floor spots, books for sale and a licensed bar. Doors open at 7:30pm. £5 / £3 concessions.

Pat Borthwick was awarded a Hawthornden fellowship in 2003. She has published two full length collections, 'Between Clouds and Caves' (Littlewood Arc, 1990) and 'Swim' (Mudfrog, 2005). Her latest pamphlet, 'Wave' (Hearing Eye) was a prizewinner in the 2007 Templar poetry competition.

Kate Rhodes' poems have appeared in The Guardian and The Independent on Sunday, and she won third place in the 2007 Bridport Prize. Enitharmon published Kate’s first full collection, Reversal in 2005. The book moves confidently across an eclectic range of subjects from a portrait of Alfred Wallis to a one-to-one dialogue with Damien Hirst's shark, all written in a style that Don Paterson commends as 'pared to the bone, elegant and precise.'

www.moloch.ie

2008-04-07T09:01:00.000-07:00

Moloch has just been given a face lift.

The new issue will be published this weekend, with some amazing new art and writing...Go and have a look!

www.moloch.ie

Readings & spoken word at thisisnotashop

2008-04-07T05:37:00.000-07:00

beyond redemption @ thisisnotashop

Dublin,
Friday 11th April

Doors open 8.30

Terry Markey and thisisnotashop present an open event of live art and alternative performance, which invites artists and performers to attend and participate. Any and all live actions are welcome (less than ten minutes) no submissions required just turn up and make contact come early to secure a slot. This event is to create a forum for live art and action where artists and performers can relay work in an informal environment. Live art, live action, free style spoken word, readings, dance, burlesque, comedy magic and music any and all are welcome.

Followed by reception at Dice bar.

For more info, info@pitiablefrenzy.com

www.thisisnotashop.com

26 Benburb St, Dublin 7

The Wolf launches Issue 17 tonight

2008-04-07T05:35:00.000-07:00

Issue 17 of The Wolf launches on Monday 7th April, 8pm sharp. Limited seating!
Venue is The Poetry Studio, 22 Betterton Street, Covent Garden, London.

Readers on the night will be Andrea Brady, Jonathan Morley, James Womack, Siddhartha Bose, Kate Potts with poet/translator Stephen Watts and Ziba Karbassi reading poems and translations from Persian.

This is a FREE event and will mark the unveiling of an all-new look to The Wolf. Do come and celebrate with us.

best,
James Byrne

Editor, The Wolf

www.wolfmagazine.co.uk

The Wolf acknowledges the support of the Arts Council England

Launch of Story Tellers Unlimited

2008-04-02T06:12:00.000-07:00

Rab kindly sent this to us...

Launch of Story Tellers Unlimited
www.storytellersunlimited.com

Saturday 5th April at 4pm in Galway City Museum.

You are warmly invited to the international launch of www.storytellersunlimited.com. Funded by the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaion the website contains a video archive of stories researched and performed for Galway City Museum by acclaimed storytellers Rab Swannock Fulton and Clare Muireann Murphy. It also includes information on Rab and Clare's teaching work, up and coming performances and shows that can be booked.

The launch is on Saturday 5th April and begins at 4pm in Galway City Museum. Rab will host the Irish launch, along with guest speaker Fionnuala Gallagher, the Arts Officer of National University of Ireland, Galway. At 5pm the launch will then be handed over to Clare in America. The American launch takes place in the Children Museum of Denver and begins at 11am,
Denver time.

As well as www.storytellersunlimited.com Rab and Clare are busy working on new projects. At present Rab is finishing a new collection of short stories and essays for his American fanzine www.geygallus.com, and putting together a show of 'Dark Tales' for the Town Hall Theatre studio, Galway. Clare recently finished a highly praised three-week tour of England, and is
currently touring in the U.S.A.

For more details contact: 00353 (0) 87 654 5411

Poetry Upfront

2008-03-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

Here's something exciting we got in the post:

Hello all,

Poetry Upfront returns to its regular open-mic format with a session on Thursday 20 March. Our venue is Trax Cafe & Wine Bar on Station Street, Balbriggan and start time is 8pm. Admission, as always, is free, and everyone is welcome. See our website at www.freewebs.com/poetryupfront.

Christodoulos & Jane
Poetry Upfront

Mao-ing

2008-03-18T06:49:00.001-07:00

There's a gorgeous&shivery poem by Fred Johnston here.

Poems for poems' sake

2007-08-31T03:41:00.000-07:00

"We have taken it into our heads that to write a poem simply for the poem's sake [...] and to acknowledge such to have been our design, would be to confess ourselves radically wanting in the true poetic dignity and force: — but the simple fact is that would we but permit ourselves to look into our own souls we should immediately there discover that under the sun there neither exists nor can exist any work more thoroughly dignified, more supremely noble, than this very poem, this poem per se, this poem which is a poem and nothing more, this poem written solely for the poem's sake."
- Edgar Allan Poe, 'The Poetic Principle'.

How to speak poetry

2007-08-13T08:56:00.001-07:00

from Leonard Cohen's Death of a Lady's Man

"Take the word butterfly. To use this word it is not necessary to make the voice weigh less than an ounce or equip it with small dusty wings. It is not necessary to invent a sunny day or a field of daffodils. It is not necessary to be in love, or to be in love with butterflies. The word butterfly is not a real butterfly. There is the word and there is the butterfly. If you confuse these two items people have the right to laugh at you. Do not make so much of the word. Are you trying to suggest that you love butterflies more perfectly than anyone else, or really understand their nature? The word butterfly is merely data. It is not an opportunity for you to hover, soar, befriend flowers, symbolize beauty and frailty, or in any way impersonate a butterfly. Do not act out words. Never act out words. Never try to leave the floor when you talk about flying. Never close your eyes and jerk your head to one side when you talk about death. Do not fix your burning eyes on me when you speak about love. If you want to impress me when you speak about love put your hand in your pocket or under your dress and play with yourself. If ambition and the hunger for applause have driven you to speak about love you should learn how to do it without disgracing yourself or the material.

"What is the expression which the age demands? The age demands no expression whatever. We have seen photographs of bereaved Asian mothers. We are not interested in the agony of your fumbled organs. There is nothing you can show on your face that can match the horror of this time. Do not even try. You will only hold yourself up to the scorn of those who have felt things deeply. We have seen newsreels of humans in the extremities of pain and dislocation. Everyone knows you are eating well and are even being paid to stand up there. You are playing to people who have experienced a catastrophe. This should make you very quiet. Speak the words, convey the data, step aside. Everyone knows you are in pain. You cannot tell the audience everything you know about love in every line of love you speak. Step aside and they will know what you know because you know it already. You have nothing to teach them. You are not more beautiful than they are. You are not wiser. Do not shout at them. Do not force a dry entry. That is bad sex. If you show the lines of your genitals, then deliver what you promise. And remember that people do not really want an acrobat in bed. What is our need? To be close to the natural man, to be close to the natural woman. Do not pretend that you are a beloved singer with a vast loyal audience which has followed the ups and downs of your life to this very moment. The bombs, flame-throwers, and all the shit have destroyed more than just the trees and villages. They have also destroyed the stage. Did you think that your profession would escape the general destruction? There is no more stage. There are no more footlights. You are among the people. Then be modest. Speak the words, convey the data, step aside. Be by yourself. Be in your own room. Do not put yourself on."

Happy Birthday Wolf

2007-07-05T06:35:00.000-07:00

The Wolf - a rather splendid London poetry mag - is celebrating its 5th birthday this month. If you're in the area, you might want to pop by the party:

5 Years of The Wolf & Launch of Issue 15
Monday 23rd July, 8pm
Poetry Studio, 22, Betterton Street (near Covent Garden)
FREE Entrance.

Naked Lunch Open Mike

2007-06-14T09:58:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Carnival, a colourful little bar with collage walls in reds, and greens, and blues.
Stumble in, bashfully, past the various faces who lurk by candlelight waiting for naked lunch to start.
But, despite the name, Naked lunch is not some sordid afternoon debauchery but a wonderful amalgamation of poetry and music, mixed together to keep you constantly in a dreamy euphoria with no time for brain freeze or boredom.

When the open mike started we made our way down the back of the room frozen at thought of our names being called out. Poet after poet dropped beautiful bombshells, musicians ached missiles and we lay in the debris with grins on our faces feeling a little better off for all of it.

Living in England among publishers I still manage to get in my dose of poetry, reading books in my small attic room to avoid the big brother hysteria below (dear terrorists please send some anthrax their way, or better yet make it a flour bomb, or some coke and saw dust, let them be soap); but something was missing, there were no voices.

When I visited ailbhe in London I demanded poetry read out loud, she lied and said she had none….I told her I wanted lions in the living room so she sat me by her computer with john and a poetry Ireland cd and let me listen to some audio files while she and gareth got drunk on stories outside. And in wexford last weekend I joined the boys who were hiding from the sunshine with their beers, and produced my lions and told them they had to read to me. So Sean took on the role, begrudgingly, and I sat there grinning as lions ate my soul for decades. Mark read us into a Norwegian depression and finally I read to them from "couplet" about fingerprint on pillow cases.

It was the accents that made the naked lunch experience so wonderful, the country poet who wrote about a girl with a face like a whore, the American who made me feel like my brain was tripping all over the gaf and the beautiful dubs, wonderfully mispronouncing words, dropping letters and giving them all the more character.

I miss Dublin and it's voices and it's cruel sense of humour. I miss the political incorrectness, giggling over things we shouldn't and insulting each other in new and inventive ways. In Wexford I was shocked to silence when I teased darran and he replied in his quiet and polite manner "you know clodagh, some people might say it's rather needy of you to come all the way from England to spend a weekend with people who don't really like you" then his voice took on a puzzled tone and he continued "do you think you're still part of the gang after a years absence". It shocked me to hear lovely old darran turn mean, but the weekend got meaner still with mark dubbing it "freak out clodagh weekend" and Stephen making inverted comas in the air everytime I used the word "friend". And Stephen's lovely sarcy dub accent dripped venom anytime someone mentioned books or poetry "you got an English degree yeah, you went to college".

But still my friends who hate me and tell me so in the most wonderful accents took me to a bar where Aoife Mannix, the featured poet of the night, cut out words with her beautiful dub voice, hanging up all her animals and letting them dance within this carnival. I sat on a high seat like a child, grinning away in my multi-coloured dress listening to her weave clothes from everyday things and torture her young brother though he sat fully grown in the audience. After 12 years of living in London she retained all her Dublin charms.

I walked back to town with Tim Costello and Kevin Desmond who talked a mile a minute about poetry and how to make it, and how ailbhe and I are his flipside, irish poets moving to England. And he tells me that we have talent and we are pretty enough to be poets which makes me laugh a lot and remember poor Stephen- the boy child who in trying to compliment me one day informed me that I was pretty and smart enough to be a poets wife. Kevin goes on and on about photographs and videoing readings and the importance of live audio. He says that the monster truck montage of readings was spliced in such a way to take the word "fuck" out of ailbhes poem but that it's spirit hung there, the residue of removed obsenities still hanging visibly in the spirit of omitted words. And he speaks with such energy about writing switching from thought to thought with very little to connect the strands together. When I leave (something I regret doing) and insist on getting Tim email address, he informs Tim that this is what ailbhe and I do- collect people for our galleries but then never return.

And he is right in a way, but it is not people we collect but experiences and to return to such things, to relive a perfect memory can often make it imperfect, tarnishing the original, it is holding onto something that is no longer there, living life like a tape stuck in a loop. We went to the monster truck gallery, once, and never returned- but we will do again, just not so often that it becomes stale for us. If I had not agreed to meet non-poets today I would be out there peopling my gallery with more carnival animals, cutting voices and lyrical unfinished words.

Naked Lunch Open Mike take place every Wednesday from 8pm upstairs @ Carnival on Wexford St., Dublin 2.
more details can be found on their myspace http://www.myspace.com/dublinpoetry

Couplet reviewed

2007-05-30T06:46:00.000-07:00

Couplet by James Browning Kepple and Kim Görannson (Pretend Genius Press, 2007)

Couplet is an ingenious object: two poets’ respective collections printed back to back. Each poem is faced, not with a blank page, but with the other poet’s upside-down poem. Hey, it saves paper.
This being Pretend Genius Press, the style is - for want of a more sensible word - experimental. The influence of those dead white men, the Beats, is obvious. A ruddy disregard for traditional forms, syntax and sometimes even spelling makes it challenging but, on the whole, refreshing reading.

James Browning Kepple’s work is open about its angry politics from the start, with pieces about a war veteran seeking forgiveness, the Cuban national baseball team, and the uncomfortably blunt ‘jesus is a walmart’. Another blunt instrument, ‘thunderstorms over virgin galactic’ is frankly judgemental, peering down its nose at the “motley of used money” that can afford to holiday in space. And it’s surprising to find such a modern style turned to conservative nostalgia, as in ‘Gone were the sad daisy’.

But Kepple also achieves moments of serious yum, as in ‘Transient Baltimore Ship Builder’, ‘Jon benet’ or morsels like a "child’s crayon remarks2 ('for a war veteran seeking rose'). Flip the book over and there are further tasty nibbles from Kim Göransson, like the ideas that “hitchcock themselves / under the skin” (‘note found in a notebook on a park bench in a park’).

Göransson’s poetry is more intimate and less punch drunk. Best of anything here is ‘Brigitte Bardot swam in the pool the day my grandmother died’, which juxtaposes the two characters of the title in a truly original way, gorgeously and movingly:

In her last months, she wrote
letters to an American friend, Ethel.
I think it was, Minneapolis.
Nipples darker than dead suns, cutting
through everything. An exchange student,
back in the 40s, those were the days. She
recalls. Slim against a body without shame,
dragging against a bottom of
polished stone.

Kepple credits Dr Polysceni Indya Tzimourtas and Olesya Mishechkina with helping to edit his work. Hm. The book as a whole might have done with a more substantial editor: the torrent of words is overwhelming and it is impossible to get any sense of it as a self-contained unity (or even two self-contained unities). Conversely, if there was never going to be any unifying logic to the collection, it is a shame not to see in Göransson’s roll call ‘the pope is dying and i can’t stop eating’, a poem for which we at Moloch are bound to feel a special fondness, having once been proud to put it into print.

- Ailbhe

London Poetry Meetup

2007-04-26T08:43:00.000-07:00

If any of you would-be poet-types are wafting and drooping about London, let me recommend the London Poetry Meetup. We met in the Artillery Arms on Monday to celebrate Shakespeare's birthday and it was quite the food of love.

In advance of each meeting, a great poet (or a handful of 'em) is chosen, and you bring along some of their work to read and some of your own. Along the way, some beer is drunk and some merry tangents are gone on.

The next one is going to feature Browning, Tennyson, Eliot and Pound - who would miss it for the world?

If you're interested, you need to register with the Meetup website:

http://www.meetup.com/t/tf_3741314

Then join the London Poetry Meetup Group.

despite some delay...

2007-04-25T02:54:00.000-07:00

Moloch who entered my soul early! Moloch in whom
I am a consciousness without a body! Moloch
who frightened me out of my natural ecstasy!
Moloch whom I abandon!

Last summer, sitting in the sun with my useless degree and dwindling funds, I had a mini-crisis. I really did not know what to do with myself - besides write and publish unprofitable things(sorry guys). So I decided to get a little bit of direction and put in a late application for a publishing MA. A few weeks later I packed my bags preparing to bury myself in a sea of books in oxford. Unfortunately they were mainly books of the soul draining kind: business, editorial, marketing...all the things designed to make you forget why you want to get into the business. And oxford publishing types it turned out are very punctual with perfect attendance, most of whom it appeared saw publishing as a business.

And then there was me, always running in fifteen minutes late with unbrushed hair and colourful skirts freshly torn from bike chains. I never thought I would fit in, for the first six weeks i lived in a hostel going back and forth between the career hungry world and a world where australians played bongos, drank beer and danced on a rooftop terrace each night as we huddled around the heater and under large impractical umbrellas that threatened to take us up in a gust of wind. But I had to make a decision and soon relocated close to my college where I now live in a little split level attic room with no carpet, unpainted walls and fairy lights to compensate for the poor lighting. I soon found business types often hide creative goblins under their hats, got stuck into the course but never quite managed to trade my coloured skirts for sombre colours or master the art of punctuality.

As I was battling business demons, my creative partner missy darcy was battling some of her own. Sadly she has never been able to stay still for too long, dreaming of postcodes to exploit and twist to her desires. So she took the plunge and joined me on the relocation trail. But we are now well underway brainstorming, designing, having unsuccessful barbeques and drinking cocktails on foreign waters.

In two weeks time we should see a new design for the Moloch homepage, which thanks to my evil publishing course will be compatible with all web browsers. By July we hope to have the summer issue up and running!

Life has been hectic. Despite our hopes and unrealistic plans Moloch turned Bi-annual, we may produce more of them if we get more submissions and life throws us a few bones. But for now you must submit to moloch, stick your babies in that giant bull god and let us help you to light the flames.

About Moloch.ie

2007-03-23T20:03:00.000-07:00

Moloch features art in different media, poetry and short prose. It will also contains collaborations between writers and artists with contributors finding inspiration in each other’s pieces, creating a conjunction between art and writing.

Submissions may be on any subject and in any style. Writers are invited to submit up to six poems and/or up to two short stories. Artists are invited to submit up to six pieces. Anyone interested in taking part in a collaboration - that is, writing a poem/short story inspired by another person’s art, or creating a new piece of art inspired by a poem/short story – should contact editor@moloch.ie.

Moloch provides a much-needed platform for art and writing to co-exist, for different art forms to enhance and inspire each other.

Moloch seeks variety. Many journals state that a person should read their journals to see what styles and topics they prefer. But in doing so a pattern emerges; one or two forms become favoured and are seen as having more literary merit, which results in writers concentrating on these favoured styles. This puts writing at a standstill - in order to be published one must write a certain way, but if we are all writing in the same manner how can we move forward and create new styles? Moloch includes polished gems side by side with more experimental pieces.

Moloch seeks depth and quality. Its title reflects the power of art and fiction. The god Moloch appeared in many forms, taking different names or demonic shapes. People believed that by sacrificing newborn babies to him they would receive better harvests and financial gain. By placing a child in the statue of Moloch and lighting the flames you could win your family a better life. Moloch is a story that altered the world around him, a myth that became reality in peoples’ minds, yielding very real consequences.

Poetry, short stories and art - like Moloch - reside somewhere between myth and reality. They are distorted truths that often appear more real than reality itself, with the power to make or break a society. Oppressive regimes have begun their rule with book burnings, recognizing the power a fictional tale can have to inspire a society or bring it to a point of self reflection. It is this kind of power that Moloch seeks. Submit to Moloch.

Background Notes

This is the second venture of this kind undertaken by Clodagh Moynan and Ailbhe Darcy. In spring 2006 they co-edited an intervarsity journal of art and writing, Watermarks, featuring work by students across Dublin, a sample of which can be found on http://watermarks.moloch.ie. Watermarks is available to buy in Anthology Books on Meetinghouse Square, Temple Bar, Dublin.