Join us for an afternoon of readings and discussion with three Turas Press writers, each sharing work from their latest publications.
Attendance is free but booking is essential.
ABOUT THE READING
Emma McKervey will present a taster from her new poetry collection, God-Head-Contraption , which follows her acclaimed second collection, Highland Boundary Fault , published by Turas Press in 2024. In God-Head-Contraption , Emma turns her poetic vision toward the London branch of her family, bell-founders at the renowned Whitechapel Bell Foundry.
“A tour-de-force hovering between eighteenth-century picaresque novels and sound poetry, it resonates profoundly across the centuries, bringing something rare and unique to contemporary poetry.” - Professor Philip Terry
Ross Hattaway’s Plain explores the joys, griefs and expectations of family and personal relationships. His satirical, playful tone is tinged with an underlying sadness, seasoned with a dash of optimism. The detached voice, now teasing the reader with deadpan wit, now teetering cheerfully on the abyss, unflinchingly gazes upon ‘sadness/at the heart of things’ yet emerges resilient, resisting, surviving.
“This is a collection of probing, reflective poems, with flickers of light at the end of their dark tunnels.” - Fióna Bolger
Aftershock , by Turas Press founder and Director Liz McSkeane , is a historical novel set in 18th-century Portugal. It tells the story of one of the most devastating earthquakes in recorded history, and of the man who rebuilt Lisbon from its ruins: the powerful and controversial Marquis of Pombal.
“Hilary Mantel-style historical fiction… a page-turner.” - Liam Murphy, Munster Express
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
EMMA MCKERVEY is an award-winning poet from Holywood, County Down. Her poetry has been widely published and broadcast in Ireland and Northern Ireland. She is a founder and member of the poetry collective Femina Culpa. God-Head-Contraption is her third poetry collection.
ROSS HATTAWAY is originally from New Zealand and has lived in Ireland for almost thirty years. He has read his work in Ireland, the UK, the USA, Australia, New Zealand and Lithuania and he is a founder member of the Sunflower Sessions in Dublin. Plain is his fourth collection of poetry, and the second to be published by Turas Press.
LIZ MCSKEANE is the founder and Director of Turas Press. Originally from Scotland from a Scottish-Irish family and now a naturalised Dubliner, she is an award-winning writer of poetry, short stories, and novels widely published in Ireland and the UK. Aftershock is her second novel.