Congratulations to Stephen de Búrca on being awarded the Ireland Chair of Poetry Travel Award, which will help facilitate his travels to Budapest to research the poetry of Amy Károlyi (1909-2003).
Commenting on this year’s Travel Award, the Trustees had this to say:
“Stephen de Búrca’s proposal to travel to Budapest to research the poetry of Amy Károlyi struck us as having the kind of hybrid curiosity that bodes well for his future work. With one collection just published, it’s heartening to see a second beginning to hove so clearly into view for this young poet. This year’s Travel Award recognises work that has already established itself, as well as the promise of a new project engaging so thoughtfully with a poet who will bring a refreshing new sensibility to Irish poetry. We wish Stephen well with his research and travels, and look forward to reading the work that will, in time, arise from them.”
Stephen de Búrca’s Atlantic Fret unveils a focus, indeed a constancy of purpose, uncommon in a first collection. In its impressive range of formal attainment, including the elegiac title sequence and the imaginative ‘Tide Clock’ sequence, Atlantic Fret reveals a writer sensitively attuned to inner and outer tensions. The result is a poetry collection that is genuinely affecting.
