Sunday, March 25, 2007

Two new titles: Collected Poems by Francis Harvey, and The Mirror Tent by Gerard Smyth

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On Tuesday 17th April, 2007, the Dedalus Press publishes two new titles, Collected Poems by Francis Harvey, and The Mirror Tent by Gerard Smyth. The books will be launched at an event in the Damer Hall, St. Stephen's Green West, Dublin 2, at 7.00 pm on that evening, at which both poets will read. Collected Poems by Francis Harvey will be introduced by John Gormley, T.D., while Gerard Smyth's The Mirror Tent will be introduced by Fiach MacConghail. The event is hosted by Poetry Ireland and all are welcome. Both books will be available from that date, either via the Dedalus Press website, or through all good bookshops.

On this same point, we would like to express our appreciation to Books Upstairs, Dublin / Books Irish website, for their continued support with all new Dedalus titles.



A section of the capacity crowd at the launch in Dublin's Damer Hall.

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Dedalus Audio Room (happily) too popular


The Dedalus Press website inexplicably vanished for a couple of days at the end of this week, and sent us in circles trying to figure out what had gone wrong. In turned out that our server had 'frozen' us, as we'd exceeded our bandwidth.

Given that most of the content of the site is text, and some small graphics, the explanation of course lay in the free audio content recently added, offering visitors a chance to sample some recent publications or 'attend' missed events.

Since then, we've happily increased our bandwidth allocation significantly (just in case), but it's reassuring to discover that the 'outage' wasn't the result of the usual computer gremlins, but an indication that one of our new departures is already proving itself for poetry readers.

Perhaps it is that for many of us our first encounter with poetry is as sound rather than words on a page. And even though the 'technology' of a book of poems is unikely to be improved upon, the additional experience of hearing a poem in the poet's own speaking voice has a potency and intimacy all of its own. In a sense, too, it's an opportunity to pull away for a few moments from the almost bewildering shuffle of possibilities that even a search for POETRY on the internet can produce -- and to just listen to a single speaking voice. Litte wonder that so many of the qualities we associate with written poetry -- voice, tone, rhythm and rhyme, of course -- are in fact descriptive of qualities of audio delivery.

If the internet sometimes seems abuzz with new ideas, fads and gimmicks, at the same time it is also particularly good at creating quiet space where words can actually be heard.

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If you haven't already visited (files are mostly mp3 and easily downloadable), do drop into the Audio Room from time to time, as we will continually add new material as forthcoming titles are published.

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Leland Bardwell reads in Galway, 09 March 2007


Poet and novelist LELAND BARDWELL will read at The Imperial Hotel, Galway, on Friday March 9th, 2007, at 8pm. Sponsored by Poetry Ireland, the reading is one in a series presented by the Western Writers' Centre. Admission is €7 and €5.