Katie Donovan Readings
'In Katie Donovan’s May Swim, an animating tension runs between the experience of loss and the possibility of salvage [...] Generous, vivid and forthright, these are poems that cleverly balance tenderness with advocacy; resignation with commendable resolve.' – Vona Groarke, The Irish Times
Irish poet Katie Donovan's sixth book of poetry from Bloodaxe Books, May Swim, was published in May 2024. In this candid and uncompromising collection, poems of loss, widowhood and ageing co-exist with observations of her wild garden and its inhabitants, informed by wider concerns about the environment and climate change.
Her previous books of poetry are Watermelon Man (1993), Entering the Mare (1997), Day of the Dead (2002), Rootling: New & Selected Poems (2010), and Off Duty (2016), which was shortlisted for the Irish Times–Poetry Now Award. In 2017 Katie Donovan was awarded the twenty-first O’Shaughnessy Award for Poetry 'for the intensity and conviction of her poetry, in recognition of the great range of both her craft and her subject matter, and in appreciation of her dedication to the witness and the vocation of the writer'. She is a former journalist with The Irish Times and has taught Creative Writing at IADT Dún Laoghaire and NUI Maynooth. She lives in Dalkey, Co. Dublin.
Katie gave an early reading at Cork International Poetry Festival on 15 May 2024, and launched her book in person at Hodges Figgis in Dublin on 22 May, introduced by Sinéad Mac Aodha, and in Galway on 28 June, introduced by Rita Ann Higgins. Scroll down to see a video of her joint online launch with Bloodaxe Books.
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Katie Donovan was Rachael Hegarty's guest on the new RTÉ Radio 1 weekly poetry series Poetry People on Sunday 12 May 2024. Rachael described May Swim as a book of ‘personal loss, love and recovery.’ Katie read and introduced three poems from May Swim: ‘Snowman’, ‘May Swim 2020 at Whiterock Beach’ and ‘The Dancing Queens’. Listen here (from 17:36).
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An excellent in-depth review of May Swim went online in The Friday Poem on 3 October 2024. Read in full here.
‘These are poems about near despair and stubborn hope. What makes May Swim so special is how Donovan reveals these states and entities as symbiotic; we are all connected to each other, to the natural environment, to the generations that preceded us and to those who will follow. The tensions between oppositional states, rather than dividing us, are the very things that bring us together, offer hope, balance us, and create a whole and teeming world.’ – Isabelle Thompson, The Friday Poem
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PAST EVENTS
Tuesday 21 May 2024
Bloodaxe online launch reading by Amanda Dalton, Imtiaz Dharker and Katie Donovan
Amanda Dalton, Imtiaz Dharker and Katie Donovan joined us on 21 May 2024 for an online launch reading, celebrating the publication of their new poetry collections. They were reading from their new poetry books and discussing them with each other and with host Neil Astley. Katie read last in each set.
[18 April 2024]
