Rita Ann Higgins Launch Events
'Celebration of the everyday, that we may take for granted, powers much of these poems that span some forty years. [...] The town and country, nay the whole island, shines in her tones of light and dark with the occasional blast of colour. Long may she reign, at least unofficially, as Irish Poet Laureate.' – Fred D'Aguiar, PBS Selector, Poetry Book Society Bulletin
Poetry Book Society Special Commendation
Jiving with Wasps, published in March 2026, is a new retrospective from Ireland's Rita Ann Higgins, and is a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation for Spring 2026. It draws on a dozen books of poetry published over four decades, from Goddess on the Mervue Bus (1986) to The Long Weekend (2024), in addition to new poems appearing here for the first time. These are provocative and heart-warming poems of high jinks and telling social comment by a gutsy, anarchic chronicler of Irish lives and foibles. Defiantly mischievous, playfully subversive, this irreverent iconoclast has been achieving even wider popularity through her regular appearances on RTÉ's Brendan O'Connor Show: 'Rita Ann Higgins is the people's poet. She's magic. She's a one-off.'
Jiving with Wasps: New & Selected Poems updates Rita Ann Higgins’ two previous Bloodaxe retrospectives Sunny Side Plucked (1996) and Throw in the Vowels (2025), including substantial selections from the earlier collections included in those with the addition of poems from her later collections Ireland Is Changing Mother (2011) and Tongulish (2016) from Bloodaxe; Hurting God (2010), Our Killer City (2018) and Pathogens Love a Patsy (2020) from Salmon; The Long Weekend (Gill, 2024), poems read on RTÉ's Brendan O'Connor Show; and a generous selection of new, previously uncollected poems.
~~~~~
Rita Ann Higgins was Brendan O’Connor’s guest on his RTÉ Radio 1 show on Sunday 29 March 2026 ahead of her in-person launch at Books Upstairs in Dublin later that day. A wonderful in-depth interview covering her life and work and celebrating her new retrospective Jiving with Wasps: New & Selected Poems, which is published in the UK and Ireland by Bloodaxe.
‘It’s a well-deserved look back on a terrific life and career. It’s a great book […] and it is poetry for everyone – it absolutely is.’ – Brendan O’Connor, on Jiving with Wasps
The interview is available as a separate chapter here: https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/22596828/
The Connacht Tribune ran a two-page interview with Galway poet Rita Ann Higgins on 27 March 2026 to mark publication of her third Bloodaxe retrospective Jiving with Wasps: New & Selected Poems. Rita Ann was speaking to Judy Murphy about the book. In print on 27 March. Available to view online without subscription here.
~~~~~
Rita Ann Higgins launched her new retrospective Jiving with Wasps: New & Selected Poems at Books Upstairs in Dublin on 29 March and at Cúirt International Festival of Literature on 26 April 2026. A video of her joint online launch with Bloodaxe is below.
~~~~~
PAST EVENTS & INTERVIEWS
Tuesday 24 March 2026, 7pm - YouTube
Online launch reading by Lily Blacksell, Rita Ann Higgins and John McCullough
Lily Blacksell, Rita Ann Higgins and John McCullough celebrated the publication of their new books by reading live and discussing their work with the host, Bloodaxe editor Neil Astley.
This free Bloodaxe launch event was streamed on YouTube Live and is now available on this YouTube page: https://youtube.com/live/p_0hOeoZUtE
Rita Ann Higgins read second in each set.
Rita Ann Higgins was Rick O’Shea’s guest on RTE Radio 1's Arena on 28 October 2025 ahead of an event at Dublin Book Festival on 6 November 2025.
This 15-minute interview with Rita Ann Higgins is available as a podcast. Listen here. She read poems included in Jiving with Wasps: New & Selected Poems.
~~~~~
Ahead of a special event in Galway celebrating her poetry, Rita Ann Higgins spoke to Seán Rocks about her life and work on RTE Radio 1's Arena on 5 March 2024. Listen here.
Rita Ann Higgins wrote about 'learning to accept praise' for RTÉ Culture online ahead of this Galway event. The page also includes a video of Rita reading ten poems. Read the piece here.
A video of the event is available to watch here and below.
'An Evening Celebrating the Work of Rita Ann Higgins' was held at the Town Hall Theatre in Galway on Wednesday 20 March 2024. The evening included readings of Rita Ann Higgins' poems by writers including Elaine Feeney, Mary O'Malley and Sarah Clancy, plus a discussion with Rita Ann herself.
~~~~
Click here for links to TV & Radio interviews with Rita Ann Higgins
‘Tongulish, her 11th book of poetry, finds Higgins as intensively inventive and deliciously subversive as ever… The rebellious, innovative Higgins is one of his [James Joyce’s] distinctive heirs. Like Joyce, she knows just how to beat up the English language and her use of mythology, Irish language and Ireland’s past put her own inimitable stamp on her bang up-to-date present.’ – Martina Evans, The Irish Times
[07 March 2024]
