Jane Clarke interviews & poem features
'The poems are plain-spoken and restrained: they resist easy consolation. Their austerity serves to intensify the unmediated emotion they almost don’t want to capture...a poem might be born of personal loss, but, once completed and published, it has entered a different timespan, and becomes the forge where other minds are shaped and brightened.' – Carol Rumens, on When the Tree Falls, Poem of the Week, TheGuardian.com
Irish poet Jane Clarke's second collection When the Tree Falls was published by Bloodaxe in September 2019. Her lyrically eloquent poems bear witness to the rhythms of birth and death, celebration and mourning, endurance and regrowth. An elegiac sequence, inspired by the loss of her father, moves gracefully through this second collection. Jane's debut collection The River was published by Bloodaxe in June 2015 to great acclaim.
Jane Clarke read and introduced her poem 'He stood at the top of the stairs' from When the Tree Falls on the Words Lightly Spoken podcast here.
An interview with Jane Clarke featured in the inaugural issue of The Poet Magazine, Autumn 2019. Click here to read. Jane comments on three of the poems from When the Tree Falls here.
While Jane was in Washington DC in October 2019, she was interviewed by Grace Cavalieri for The Library of Congress's The Poet & the Poem series. This half-hour interview is available here. Jane read and spoke about her poems 'When winter comes' (see below for a link to Carol Rumens' commentary on this poem), 'Hers', 'Polling Station', 'In Glasnevin', 'I've got you', 'Lullaby' and 'Kelly's Garden' from When the Tree Falls and the title poem from The River.
Jane's poem 'When winter comes' from When the Tree Falls was discussed by Carol Rumens in her Guardian Poem of the Week column here.
The Irish Times featured 'Camping at Bearna' as their Poem of the Week on 12 October 2019 here.
Elementum Journal, Book of the Week, Week of 28 October 2019
The glossy magazine Elementum Journal featured Jane Clarke’s second collection When the Tree Falls as their Book of the Week for the week from 28 October. Their feature includes reviews for the collection, and links to an extract from their interview with Jane in their inaugural issue in 2015.
The glossy magazine Elementum Journal featured Jane Clarke’s second collection When the Tree Falls as their Book of the Week for the week from 28 October. Their feature includes reviews for the collection, and links to an extract from their interview with Jane in their inaugural issue in 2015.
‘It’s a privilege to bring Jane’s work to a wider audience and we’re delighted to share this collection with you.'
Click here to read.
Jane’s poem ‘Cypress’ from When the Tree Falls is featured on Elementum Journal’s website in the ‘Featured Writing’ section. Click here to read.
This piece also links to an extract the magazine’s interview with Jane Clarke from their inaugural issue after her debut collection had been shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize.
Click here to read the interview extract. Our author photograph was taken by Elementum to accompany that feature.
Forthcoming readings & workshops with Jane Clarke here.
[14 October 2019]
