We look forward to welcoming Louise C. Callaghan for the launch of her newest poetry collection, New Ways of Being a Stranger. Returning to Inis Meáin where the visitor is perceived as an stráinsear, the stranger, New Ways of Being a Stranger centres on the idea of fitting in.
Callaghan will be introduced on the night by poets Enda Wyley and Jean O’Brien. All are welcome to attend.
Attendance is free but booking is essential.
PRAISE FOR NEW WAYS OF BEING A STRANGER
‘In New Ways of Being a Stranger, Louise C. Callaghan has assembled her finest, deepest, most formal work yet. From the revelatory understatement and lyricism of ‘Not Married Anymore’ to the intensity of ‘The Proposition’, her poems seem to emerge in sudden rapture like alpine gentians out of limestone rock.’ - Thomas McCarthy
‘Her language has become abstract, probing deeply into concepts of ‘creation’ and ‘eternity’ while all the time aware of ‘life’s sure brevity’. Reading the many poems in this collection dedicated to friends past and present, we sense the truth in the words of her late friend, Manchán Magan - ‘Everything is separate, and yet everything is connected’. Life is indeed rich and full.’ - Susan Connolly
ABOUT
LOUISE C. CALLAGHAN was born in Dublin in 1948 and now lives in Dun Laoghaire. Formerly a secondary school teacher, she has also taught and facilitated creative writing workshops over many years. She studied for a B.A. in English and Spanish in University College Dublin and has an M. Litt in poetry from St Andrews University, Scotland. Her poems have been published in journals and anthologies - including in The Field Day Anthology of Irish Literature, Volumes IV & V. Her work is recorded in the Irish Poetry Reading Archive, UCD. New Ways of Being a Stranger is her sixth collection of poems.
ENDA WYLEY’s six collections include Sudden Light ( October 2025 ), The Painter on his Bike (2019); she has also published Borrowed Space: New and Selected Poems (2014), all from Dedalus Press. Among her awards are the Vincent Buckley Poetry Prize, Melbourne University, and a Reading Association of Ireland Award. Her work has been frequently broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1 . She is an experienced teacher of poetry, co-hosts the popular podcast Books for Breakfast, and is a member of Aosdána.
JEAN O’BRIEN has been teaching in the Irish Writers Centre for over 20 years and at post graduate level for an American University. Her Awards include; The Arvon International (UK) and the Fish International (Irl). Her work has also been placed or highly commended in the Forward Prize (single poem) (UK), the Bridport Prize (UK) twice and the Gregory O’Donoghue Prize (Irl), the Trocraire Award (Irl) including many others. She also received 2 Patrick Kavanagh Fellowships and was poet in residence in the Irish Cultural Centre (CCI) in Paris in 2021 and was awarded several Arts Council grants. She has six poetry collections from Salmon Publishing (Irl) her latest being Stars Burn Regardless (2022).