Book launch and poetry reading (press release)

Anthology Books, Meeting House Square, Temple Bar, Dublin 2
Thursday, 19 May, 6PM
Free and open to the public.

Anthology Books is pleased to host the Dublin book launch of two fine volumes of poetry, Tracking a Ghost, by Nessa O'Mahony, and Blood, by Nigel McLoughlin. Both poets will be on hand to read from their work and to sign copies of their publications (both volumes published by Bluechrome, 2005).

Nessa O'Mahony was born in Dublin and currently lives in North Wales. Her first collection of poetry, Bar Talk, was published in 1999. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications and reviews such as Poetry Ireland Review, The Stinging Fly, and The Clifden Anthology, among others. Ms. O'Mahony was joint winner of the Kerry International Summer School Poetry Competition, and was short-listed for the Patrick Kavanagh Award. In 1997, she won the National Woman's Poetry Competition and was short-listed for the Sunday Tribune / Hennessy New Irish Writing Award.

Trapping a Ghost (Bluechrome, 2005), Nessa O'Mahony's second collection, explores the tensions that exist in the boundaries between past and present, flesh and spirit, poetry and narrative, inheritance and self-determination, family and artistic identity. In her poetry, ghosts exist alongside the living, reminding them of their ancestry. Stories abound, of civil war romances and heroic exploits, of old religions and new beliefs, of past love affairs, of future lives.

Nigel McLoughlin is a native of Enniskillen. He is the author of the poetry
collections: At The Waters' Clearing (Flambard / Black Mountain, 2001) and Songs For No Voices (Lagan, 2004), and the editor of an anthology of new Irish poets, Breaking The Skin (Black Mountain, 2002). His third collection, Blood, has just been published by Bluechrome Publishing.

Nigel McLoughlin's writing is technically crafted with a concern for the traditions of his art, combined with an instinct for significant modern themes. He produces work which shows clearly his vision of loss and cultural decay, invasion and violence. Mr. McLoughlin has a unique talent for entering the metaphoric hinterlands, and dealing with lasting themes in the manner of the modernist myth-maker. He consistently provides a highly symbolist and symbolic account of the mythology and history of his society, opening it out into vigorous relation with our post nine-eleven era of nervousness and fear.

Many thanks go out to Temple Bar Properties for providing refreshment for the Nessa O'Mahony and Nigel McLaughlin reading and book launch.

Ossian