Carcanet at 50: Ireland Symposium

Contact: jazmine@carcanet.co.uk

Over the last 50 years Carcanet Press has done a great deal for Irish poetry, bringing back into circulation the work of Austin Clarke and Padraic Fallon; for a time publishing Michael Hartnett and Paul Durcan; more recently taking on the Anvil Press list with its large Irish constituency, including Dennis O’Driscoll, Martina Evans, James Harpur, Thomas McCarthy; and most importantly publishing outstanding poetry by contemporaries: fifteen editions of Thomas Kinsella, eighteen of Eavan Boland, and working with new poets including Sinéad Morrissey, Adam Crothers, Tara Bergin, Moya Cannon and Mary O’Malley among others.

Please join us to celebrate Carcanet’s Jubilee at our Dublin party, a day of presentations, discussions and poetry readings, during which we intend to explore the relationships between publisher and poet over the years, Irish poetry beyond Ireland, and the development of an indie poetry press that has survived half a century. The schedule of events is below, and all are welcome to join us for the full day or the evening readings (which can be booked separately).

This is the first in a series of celebratory symposia around the UK and Ireland for Carcanet’s Jubilee. Later events will take place at the Scottish Poetry Library, the National Centre for Writing in Norwich, at Cardiff University, and at the Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts.


Carcanet at 50: Poetry Ireland schedule

13:00 – 13.15 Welcome & opening remarks

13.15 – 14.15 Panel 1: Carcanet’s Core Irish Poets

14.15 – 14.45 Discussion

14.45 – 15.15 Break

15.15 – 16.15 Panel 2: Irish Poetry Beyond Ireland

16.15 – 17.00 Discussion

19.30 - 21.30 Evening Readings

Entry: Free

Time: 1:00pm (13:00 - 21:30)