Maura Dooley's Five Fifty-Five reviewed in The Irish Times
'Dooley's infinitely delicate poems behave "shyly" but never lose their balance on her tightrope of fine connections.' – Martina Evans, The Irish Times, on Five Fifty-Five
Five Fifty-Five is Maura Dooley's sixth collection, her first book since The Silvering (2016). It was published in April 2023 by Bloodaxe Books. A video of Maura's joint launch reading is below.
These are quizzical poems concerned with time and mortality which ask fundamental questions about our lives, such as Where have you gone? and Who were you anyway? She tries to find out through conversations with, among others, Louisa M. Alcott, Hokusai, Jane Austen, Buzz Aldrin, Anne Tyler and the Great Uncle and Grandfather she never knew.
Maura Dooley was born in Truro, grew up in Bristol, worked for some years in Yorkshire, and has lived in London for the past 30 years. Her family background in Ireland and Wales has long been central to her work. Her translation of the work of exiled Iranian poet Azita Ghahreman, Negative of a Group Photograph, was co-published by Bloodaxe Books and the Poetry Translation Centre in October 2018. Maura regularly gives readings and also runs workshops and poetry courses.
POEMS ON THE UNDERGOUND
Poems on the Underground, June 2026 set
Maura Dooley’s poem ‘A Bunch of Consolation’ from her 2023 collection Five Fifty-Five is featured in the Summer set of Poems on the Underground posters, which will be displayed in underground and overground trains during June 2026. Her poem can be seen here.
A poem by fellow Bloodaxe poet Rita Ann Higgins is also included in the June set. Rita Ann’s poem is ‘No One Mentioned the Roofer (for Pat Mackey)’, which was first published in Ireland Is Changing Mother and is now included in her new Bloodaxe retrospective Jiving with Wasps: New & Selected Poems. The poster is also on its own individual page here.
Audio recordings of both poets reading their poems has been included under their poster on the Poems on the Underground website here.
A lovely BBC Radio 4 Artworks feature on the history of Poems on the Underground was broadcast on 6 January 2026 to mark the scheme's 40th birthday. With contributions from Bloodaxe poets Imtiaz Dharker and George Szirtes, who now help founder Judith Chernaik choose poems to feature on posters in the London Underground and Overground trains.
"When I saw my first Poem on the Underground decades ago, I was so taken with the poem that I missed my stop," says poet Imtiaz Dharker, one of the panel who selects poems for the scheme. "It was only years later that I understood the drive behind it: an absolute belief in the necessity of poetry, its power in the places where we live and travel every day."’
Imtiaz Dharker contributed at 3:03 & 13:05. George Szirtes & Imtiaz contributed from 18:32. Listen here.
POEM FEATURE IN THE OBSERVER FOR MOTHER’S DAY
The Observer, Poems for Mother’s Day, Sunday 15 March 2026
Poems by Fleur Adcock, Anne Stevenson and Maura Dooley were included in Poet Laureate Simon Armitage’s selection of poems for Mother’s Day which were featured in The Observer of 15 March 2026. The poems are all included in the anthology Family Lines: Poems About Parents and Parenthood, edited by Simon Armitage and Rachel Bower (Faber).
Anne Stevenson’s poem was referenced in the heading, Fleur Adcock’s in one of the illustrations, and Maura Dooley’s is described by Simon Armitage as ‘a hopeful and doting poem addressed to a baby in the womb’. Maura Dooley’s poem ‘Freight’ is from her Bloodaxe retrospective Sound Barrier: Poems 1982-2002 (2002).
The late Anne Stevenson’s ‘Poem for a Daughter’ is from her Collected Poems (2023), and the late Fleur Adcock’s ‘For a Five-Year-Old’ is from her Collected Poems (2024).
In print on 15 March 2026, online by subscription. One article available for free.
https://observer.co.uk/style/features/article/poems-for-mothers-day
ONLINE REVIEW COVERAGE
London Grip, online 30 June 2023
Maura Dooley’s new collection Five Fifty-Five was given an excellent and very detailed review online at London Grip on 30 June 2023.
'I feel that the special gift of all the writing in Five Fifty-Five is to refresh and heighten our perceptions. Dooley’s talent for metaphor gives her writing imaginative drive in a very obvious way. More elusively, her poetry’s enchanting of the world depends on an indefinable rightness, beauty, evocativeness in the very sound and flow of her lines, and on her tact in surrounding words with pauses and breathing spaces within which the reader’s own thoughts can grow.' – Edmund Prestwich, London Grip
Read the full in-depth review in London Grip here.
US REVIEW COVERAGE
(US distribution from 4 July 2023 via Consortium Books)
Publishers’ Weekly, 13 April 2023
Maura Dooley’s new collection Five Fifty-Five was very well reviewed in Publishers’ Weekly ahead of US distribution in July 2023.
‘Sonically elegant and rich with memorable descriptions and images, the latest from Dooley (after The Silvering) explores the past, mortality, and the silences and omissions that invite deeper reflection on the page… Commanding and quietly layered, these lyrically precise and subtle poems deserve revisiting.’ – Maya C. Popa, Publishers' Weekly
Read the review online here.
POETRY BOOK OF THE MONTH FEATURE ON BBC RADIO 4 EXTRA's POETY EXTRA
Poetry Extra, BBC Radio 4 Extra, Poetry Extra Book of the Month, Sunday 9 July 2023, 6am, 11am, 5pm & Monday 10 July, 12am
Daljit Nagra, host of Poetry Extra, has introduced a new monthly feature to the programme. Alongside rebroadcasting programmes from the BBC poetry archive, he will also read and introduce poems from recently-published collections. His inaugural Poetry Book of the Month choice was Maura Dooley’s new collection Five Fifty-Five. He chose to read the poem ‘Mayday in Ravenna’ from the collection, and spoke about that poem as well as about Maura Dooley's work more generally.
'Five Fifty-Five has a sustained set of tender lyrics that work their charm by focusing on moments that leap to gather greater consequence with effortless ease.' – Daljit Nagra
‘Daljit also shares a favourite, recently published poetry collection and reads a poem from it. This month's Poetry Extra Book of the Month is: Five Fifty-Five by Maura Dooley.’
The programme is no longer available on BBC Sounds, but details are here (from 29:18).
ONLINE LAUNCH EVENT
Bloodaxe Books international poetry online launch event (April 2023 book launch)
Maura Dooley read alongside Harry Clifton and Matthew Hollis as all three poets launched their new Bloodaxe collections. After their readings, they discussed their books with each other and with Bloodaxe editor Neil Astley. Maura Dooley read second in each set.
[06 July 2023]
