Jane Clarke Readings
‘A Change in the Air, Jane Clarke’s third collection, is a quiet, stoical meditation on fragility and mortality. Humanity takes its place within the rhythms of a natural world built on acceptance, community, and renewal. The title promises the best kind of revolution: freshness and wholesomeness – and the poems which follow deliver on this … In Jane Clarke’s hands, clarity, purity and strength speak for themselves. Her words are weighed and used sparingly. They take your breath away.’ – John Field, T.S. Eliot Prize Reviewer
Jane Clarke took part in the T S Eliot Prize Readings at London's Southbank Centre on 14 January 2024. Audio extracts were broadcast on BBC Radio 3's The Verb on Friday 19 January 2024, introduced by Ian McMillan, who also hosted the event at the Royal Festival Hall. Listen via BBC Sounds here. Scroll down to view the video of the T S Eliot Prize Readings.
Jane was interviewed about her writing life for Mslexia’s 20 Questions feature, published online on National Poetry Day in October 2023. Her third collection A Change in the Air was shortlisted for both the Forward Prize for Best Collection and the T S Eliot Prize 2023. Read the feature on Mslexia's website here.
For more interviews, features and reviews for A Change in the Air, see our news page: https://www.bloodaxebooks.com/news?articleid=1288
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Jane Clarke read at the Festival du Printemps des Poètes in Luxembourg, 25-27 April 2025. Eleven poets from all over Europe (Spain, Cataluña, Czech Republic, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Ireland, Portugal, Slovakia, France & Luxembourg) participated in the festival, which was supported by the Luxembourg Ministry of Culture, Embassy of Ireland, Luxembourg and Poetry Ireland.
Jane was the first poet to represent Ireland at the Festival du Printemps des Poètes. A feature about this ran in the Wicklow People here. An interview with Jane Clarke ran in Chronicle.lu of 28 April 2025 here.
DE PROFUNDIS FILM INSTALLATION, MoLI, from 7 March 2025 until 1 October 2025
Museum of Literature Ireland, 86 St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2, D02XY43, Ireland
Oscar Wilde's De Profundis: A love letter rediscovered
Jane Clarke is among the LGBTQ+ writers, artists and activists presenting key passages of Oscar Wilde's profoundly moving love letter written while in prison, De Profundis. The film installation opened 7 March 2025 and runs until 1 October 2025.
Details here. Trailer below.
One of the greatest love letters ever written, Oscar Wilde’s De Profundis was the only work that the Irish writer completed during his two-year imprisonment. Now, 125 years after Wilde’s death, MoLI, in partnership with Ebow Digital, is proud to present a new film installation rediscovering this moving and richly layered text – perhaps the most raw and honest version of Wilde available to us, at times deeply philosophical, at times white with rage, at times heartbreakingly tender.
VIDEOS OF PAST READINGS
Thursday 20 March 2025, 7-8pm GMT (free online event)
Hay Festival Bookclub
The online Hay Festival Bookclub celebrated the Welsh poet Gillian Clarke's Selected Poems on Thursday 20 March 2025. Jane Clarke discussed Gillian's outstanding poetry with her and facilitated questions from the online audience. The event was recorded, and a video of it can be seen below.
T S ELIOT PRIZE READINGS, ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL, LONDON
All ten poets shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize 2023 read from their shortlisted collections at an event held at London's Royal Festival Hall on 14 January 2024. Abigail Parry is introduced by host Ian McMillan at 1:22:45. Jane Clarke's reading followed immediately after Abigail's and is introduced at 1:35:19.
T S ELIOT PRIZE VIDEOS
Jane Clarke reads 'Spalls' from A Change in the Air.
Jane talks about her work and her shortlisted collection A Change in the Air.
PAST EVENTS
US BOOK TOUR, 24-29 SEPTEMBER 2023
Jane Clarke was in Washington DC and Philadelphia in September 2023 to launch her new collection A Change in the Air. For several events, Jane appeared alongside fellow Irish poets Katie Dovovan and Catherine Phil MacCarthy. Katie Donovan's sixth book of poetry from Bloodaxe, May Swim, is forthcoming in May 2024. Jane's books are distributed in the USA via Consortium Book Sales.
Wednesday 27 September 2023
The Library of Congress, Washington DC: Grace Cavalieri interviewed Jane for her long-running radio series The Poet and The Poem. Jane read a number of poems from her new collection, and discussed them with Grace Cavalieri.
‘This is my favourite book of yours. I think that this is just your crown jewel. This book is absolutely your voice without effort – it’s pure silk.’ – Grace Cavalieri, speaking on The Poet and the Poem podcast, on A Change in the Air
https://www.gracecavalieri.com/poetLaureates/featuredpoet_janeclarke2023.html
Friday 29 September, 7.30pm ET
NYU campus, Washington DC, John Brademas Center
Abramson Family Auditorium, 1307 L Street, NW, Washington DC 20005 (In-Person Audience)
Ron Charles, book critic with The Washington Post, hosted a public interview with Jane Clarke about her new collection. This reading was recorded for distribution to NYU campuses in several countries. Jane read poems from A Change in the Air and discussed them with Ron (from 08:26).
Ron Charles also featured her poem ‘Shepherd’ from A Change in the Air in his Washington Post newsletter ahead of the reading. Read the poem and Ron Charles' full introduction via The Washington Post newsletter here.
‘Her verse attends so closely to the land and the people of her rural homeland that it makes us attend more closely to our own. This summer she published A Change in the Air, a collection that glides gently from caring for her mother to remembering the Troubles to moving into a new house in the countryside.’ – Ron Charles, The Washington Post Book Club
ONLINE BLOODAXE LAUNCH EVENT, 23 MAY 2023
Tuesday 23 May 2023, 7pm BST
This wonderful reading and discussion event was livestreamed on 23 May 2023 and is now available on YouTube.
Jane Clarke, Kris Johnson and Yvonne Reddick joined live from Co Wicklow, North Shields and Manchester. They were reading from their new collections and discussing them with the host, Bloodaxe editor Neil Astley, and with each other. Stunning readings and fascinating discussion of poetry, nature, home and memory.
Jane Clarke read first in each set. This was the online launch for her third collection A Change in the Air.
INTERVIEW ON RTE RADIO 1's COUNTRYWIDE
Jane spoke about the mining heritage of Co Wicklow and read her poem 'Christmas Morning'. Listen here (from 14:10). She was in conversation with Della Kilroy. Listen here (first item).
PAST READINGS FROM WHEN THE TREE FALLS
Poesie: The Daily Poetry App presents a virtual discussion with Irish poet Jane Clarke
Jane Clarke was Poesie's guest poet on 27 June 2021. She read some of the poems that are featured on the Poesie app: 'Daily Bread', 'The Suck' and 'Dropping Slow' from her debut collection The River and 'Cypress' from When the Tree Falls . In the Q&A with Poesie host Benjamin Bregman, Jane spoke about how she came to start writing poetry in her forties, and about process, inspirations, music, and her values as a poet. She talked about how her tutor Gillian Clarke and the Bloodaxe anthology Staying Alive helped her along the way. Several poems by Jane feature in the fourth anthology in Neil Astley's Staying Alive series, Staying Human (pictured below).
Field Work Book Club, 6 May 2021, with guest Jane Clarke
Jane Clarke was the guest for the May edition of the Field Work Book Club on 6 May. She was the first poet to be invited to discuss her work at the bookclub. Jane was reading poems from her second collection When the Tree Falls and speaking about her upbringing on a farm in Co Roscommon. A very wide-ranging and thoughtful discusson with farmers from around the UK.
Friday 7 May 2021, 6pm, The Stay-at-Home Literary Festival - via Zoom
Solace in Sound – Three Bloodaxe Poets Explore the Landscape of Grief
Join a trio of Bloodaxe poets whose recent poetry collections span Scotland, Ireland, England and Estonia. Each shares a powerful sense of their formative landscapes; whether farmland, forest, mountains, estuaries, rivers or beyond. In poems that consider the impact of loss – of friends and friendships, parents, or a communal event of the most traumatic kind – these collections foster sympathy and strength. The poets will read from their own work, and also from each other’s, creating a unique conversation about memory and resonance in the landscape.
With Heidi Williamson, Jane Clarke and Philip Gross. They were reading from their recent collections Return by Minor Road, When the Tree Falls and Between the Islands, and read poems by each other to start and end their own readings. The start of the video below has been cut off - Philip was in the middle of reading 'The Fisherman' from Jane's debut collection The River.
Jane Clarke | Ranjit Hoskote | Mary Jean Chan
A Burren Winterage Weekend 2020 keynote talk by James Rebanks, author of two bestselling and critically acclaimed books, The Shepherd’s Life (2015) and English Pastoral (2020). In this talk, he gives an overview of his farm, his farming practices, and how they have changed over time. James also talks about his grassland and soil management, and his obsession with soil and regenerative grazing practices, as well as the habitat restoration work they have undertaken. James is a traditional upland sheep and cattle farmer in Matterdale in the Land District, breeding Belted Galloways and Herdwick sheep and he champions nature-friendly farming practices.
This is followed by a talk with poet Jane Clarke who grew up on a farm in Co. Roscommon. Jane talks about how this way of life inspired her writing and reads poems from her two highly acclaimed collections, The River and When the Tree Falls (Bloodaxe Books 2015 & 2019).
James Rebanks and Jane Clarke met in London when their first books were both shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize for writing that celebrates the spirit of a place.
Jane Clarke gave a virtual reading for episode 4 of the new LIVE Network series on Friday 29 May 2020.
Jane Clarke reads and introduces twelve poems from When the Tree Falls: ‘Copper Soles’, ‘you pull yourself up’, ‘Those days’, ‘The Polling Station’, ‘The Hurley-maker’, ‘The trouble’, ‘Hers’, ‘Map’, ‘I’ve got you’, ‘Cypress’, ‘Aftergrass’ and ‘Kelly’s Garden’. Neil Astley filmed her reading selections from her two Bloodaxe collections at her home in Glenmalure in April 2019.
[17 April 2023]
