Listings for Books of the Year 2024. Titles from The Gallery Press that were mentioned:
Devotion – Mícheál McCann
‘This tender debut from one of Ireland’s most promising new poets has the Queer domestic at its core. McCann’s control of form, sharp imagery and mythological allusion belies a collection that is by turns devastating, heart-warming and ultimately life-affirming. Many of the poems’ initial quietudes reveal hidden depths on repeated reading and are guaranteed to stay with you long after placing the book proudly back on your shelf.’ — James Patterson, RTÉ Culture
‘The young Derry-born Mícheál McCann’s Devotion (Gallery Press) is a spellbinding and finely wrought collection of poems engaged with politics and identity. In it Eileen O’Connell’s The Lament for Art O’Leary is reimagined for the Belfast of today where a man’s male lover is killed. But there’s also tender poems like ‘Keeper’ whose speaker hears a “rasp” in his father’s voice and “how he lay / witness to a great pain careening towards me.”’ — Paul Perry, Sunday Independent
American Anthem – Kelly Michels
‘Violence is also central to Kelly Michels’ first book, American Anthem, where addiction and its legacies also permeate the lyrical beauty of this book. In ‘Groceries’, Michels writes of “the stench / of foil and ash slinking into the stained / carpet” and in ‘Afterword’, she tells of how “the sky falls like an open mouth” with a beseeching call to end all violence.’
— Paul Perry, Sunday Independent
American Anthem was also an honourable mention by Adam Wyeth on the Books of the Year episode of Books for Breakfast podcast.
Questioning Ireland: Essays and Reviews – Thomas McCarthy
‘a notable contribution to the discourse around poetry’ — Paul Perry, Sunday Independent
Woman of Winter – Vona Groarke
. . . please read Woman of Winter, [Vona Groarke’s] retelling of the Hag of Beara – Louise Kennedy, The Irish Times
Harmony (Unfinished) – Grace Wilentz
one of Enda Wyley’s Books of the Year on Books for Breakfast podcast.
Old Friends – Aifric Mac Aodha/David Wheatley
Another of Enda Wyley’s Books of the Year on Books for Breakfast podcast.