Adventures in Ireland
Hello my lovelies,
So, here’s a quick post to let you know we’re off to Ireland next week. I’m very excited to be invited to perform at CAIRDE SLIGO ARTS FESTIVAL and WEST CORK LITERARY FESTIVAL and so if that’s in your neighbourhood do come along and tell your family and friends to come along too....
It is a dream gig to bring my new poems and books to Ireland. I love visiting there. I have such happy memories of writing and completing the final tweaks of Mrs Death Misses Death at the Curfew Tower in Cushendall, Co. Antrim in 2018, and I believe the last time I was there was to do gigs in Dublin and Belfast back in the before times in 2019. I have published four books since then. How the years and the books and the adventures are flying by. I will post more about this trip when I come home, but for now confirming I will see you in Ireland next week.
For those of you on this side of the water - I'm looking forward to doing a UK tour in the autumn to share the beautiful new paperback edition of With Love, Grief and Fury — This new edition will be published in October 2025, in time for National Poetry Day and Black History Month. I will post a cover reveal and more about the launch soon, for now you can find some gig dates here.
Here’s details of my three Irish shows and the faces of the amazing poets I will be sharing poetry and conversations with next week. Ah it’s gonna be a treat, see you on the sunny side, you beautiful people… sgxx
Tuesday July 8th:
Cairde Sligo Arts Festival
Yeats Building, 6pm
Join poets Saoirse Anton, Salena Godden and
for an evening of poetry and conversation. From political optimism to parenting (arguably the same thing), and cat ownership to circuses (definitely the same thing), these poets cover creative continents. Between them, they bring award-winning fiction, memoir and poetry.Salena Godden's debut novel Mrs Death Misses Death (2021) won the Indie Book Awards for Fiction and the People’s Book Prize, and was shortlisted for the British Book Awards and the Gordon Burn Prize. Her new full poetry collection With Love, Grief and Fury and literary childhood memoir Springfield Road - A Poets Childhood Revisited were published in May 2024.
Saoirse Anton is an Irish writer, performer and producer. She released her debut pamphlet Confetti Catching in February 2024, written while living with NoFit State Circus as Production Poet in Residence in Spring 2023.
Alice Kinsella’s books include Milk: On Motherhood and Madness (2023) and Wake of the Whale (2024) which was a Sunday Independent Book of the Year. The Ethics of Cats (2025) is her debut full-length poetry collection.
link: cairdefestival.com
Friday July 11th
West Cork Literary Festival
Marino Church, Bantry, 6.30pm
Salena Godden published her latest collection of poetry With Love, Grief and Fury in May 2024 and on the same day her memoir Springfield Road: A Poet’s Childhood Revisited was reissued. Salena’s electrifying live performances, at everywhere from literary festivals to the Women’s March and Extinction Rebellion protests in London’s Parliament Square, have earned her a devoted following and we can’t wait to witness her West Cork performance.
‘Read these poems then listen to Salena read these poems then go and watch Salena read these poems. She is a master of every incarnation this art form may take and I am constantly in awe of her. This collection brings so much joy and makes me determined to live more, lust more and love more.’ Hollie McNish
Salena will be doing a full solo show and reading from her latest books and poems. This event will be chaired by fellow poet Alice Kinsella
Sunday July 13th:
West Cork Literary Festival
Marino Church, Bantry, 6.30pm
Join West Cork Literary Festival and Poetry Ireland for an evening of award-winning poetry with Mona Arshi and Oluwaseun Olayiwola.
Mona Arshi’s new poetry collection Mouth will be published in July and it gives voice to the marginal women of Greek tragedy to present fresh perspectives on war and migration today. As a human rights lawyer, Mona saw power and its abuses, the structures of silencing set against refugees. As a poet, she charts the movements and migrations that change the course of our lives – from child to adult, from home to elsewhere, from grief to what lies beyond.
Strange Beach is the debut collection from poet and choreographer Oluwaseun Olayiwola. Intimate and erotic, ecological and philosophical, the poems in Strange Beach illuminate the body as a porous landscape across which existential dramas, filial fractures, and sexual reckonings occur.
This event will be chaired by fellow poet Salena Godden.
Roaring 20's Radio Show
Roaring 20’s Radio has a new slot, a lively LIVE show airing on Monday afternoon's once a month on Soho Radio. We have been producing our shows since November 2019 and we recorded our stunning June 2025 edition last week. You can listen again and find us via Soho Radio. Our next broadcast is Monday July 21st. Come find us on Soho Radio.
Roaring 20s Radio Show is presented by Salena Godden, art journalist Amah-Rose Abrams and poet
- Roaring 20s Radio amplifies the best in art and culture, books and poetry, music and activism, as we collectively roar through the unprecedented events of this tumultuous decade.
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