Poet Maighréad Medbh to read in Galway

galway | arts and media | press release Thursday December 09, 2010 01:31 by Fred Johnston - The Western Writer'sCentre, Galway - Ionad Scríbhneoiri Chaitlín Maude westernwriters at eircom dot net 0872178138

Cookes Restaurant the January 2011 venue

Poet Máighréad Medbh will read for us at Cooke's Restaurant, Abbeygate Street, Galway on Thursday, January 27th 2011 at 8pm. €6 and €4. Music also.

Maighréad Medbh for Western Writers' Centre

Maighréad, who has read for the Centre previously, was born in Newcastle West, Co. Limerick. Her debut collection, The Making of a Pagan (Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 1990), explores the vicissitudes of a difficult childhood and the socio-political environment in lines where formal design matches individual experience. The conviction that poetry emerges from one’s body led her to experiment with musical rhythms, and moved her towards performance poetry. Tenant (Cliffs of Moher: Salmon, 1999), her second collection, is a narrative sequence which centres on a fictitious family during the Famine years. It explores physical hunger as well as hunger for self-expression and personal identity. Split (in ¡Divas!, Galway: Arlen House 2003) delves into questions of individuality and relationship. In 2009, When the Air Inhales You was published by Arlen House. A mix of themes and styles in the first part of this collection leads into Part 2, which is a requiem in twenty-two short poems. Her new collection, Twelve Beds for the Dreamer (Galway: Arlen House, 2010), is a sequence exploring dreams and the inner life, structured around the moon’s monthly passage through the signs of the zodiac. She has also produced a CD, Out of My Skin, which contains some of her most popular performance poems.