Listings for Books of the Year 2023 are beginning to appear. Titles from The Gallery Press that have been mentioned so far are:
Then the Hare – Michelle O’Sullivan
‘Michelle O’Sullivan is a marvel, writing tough, beautiful poems of nature and spirit, and ‘the field’s cosmic hides’. Her lines are precise and weather-worn, etched in an ‘often-said, difficult tongue. O’Sullivan’s Then the Hare (Gallery Books) is a collection to savour: ‘Bound to no season, white sunlight trembles/at the small wave.’ — Paul Perry, Books of the Year, Sunday Independent
The Blue Cocktail – Audrey Molloy
Resonant and luminous, Audrey Molloy’s The Blue Cocktail (Gallery Press, €12.95) considers bodies and their politics beside bodies of water, home and abroad, ‘where the water is brackish,/not one thing nor another — the emigrant’s curse’. — Stephen Sexton, Books of the Year, The Irish Times
Second Voyages – Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin
‘For weeks I’ve been carrying around Second Voyages: Writers on Poems by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin. It provides a wonderful glimpse into her five-decade-spanning oeuvre. I enjoy the lithe and mysterious quality of Ní Chuilleanáin’s poetry, a selection of which is presented here with short commentaries from a diverse array of fellow poets who admire her craft.’ — Jason Allen-Paisant, Books of the Year, The Poetry Society
John FitzGerald‘s The Lament for Art O’Leary, a translation of Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire and Woman of Winter (Gallery Press) Vona Groarke‘s version of 9th-century An Chailleach Bhéara are beautifully produced, powerful and a pleasure to read.
— Gabriel Fitzmaurice, The Irish Catholic
