15th Annual PoetryFest

Our annual “literary revelry” (New Yorker) returns with Vona Groarke joining Nick Laird as co-curator. In an intimately reconfigured setup for our flexible theatre and tucked away from the cacophony of the city and our online lives, PoetryFest bridges contemporary work from both sides of the Atlantic with a free weekend of readings and conversations with leading Irish, Northern Irish, and North American writers.

Most events are free, but reservations are recommended.

“PoetryFest brings together writers from both sides of the Atlantic to discuss, read from and generally cheer on the enduring poetic community of Ireland”—TIME OUT NEW YORK

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22 // 8PM

Favorite Irish Poems

Favorite Irish Poems is the traditional opening night event of our annual PoetryFest, for which we invite festival poets and special guests to share their most-loved verses by Irish writers, followed by a reception in the Devlin Café. This year's event features the Obie and Whitbread Award winning playwright Dael Orlandersmith, New York City Ballet principal dancer Sara Mearns, Consul General Helena Nolan, writer and critic Heather Clark, actor and boxer John Duddy, author Isabella Hammad, and more special guests to be announced, along with PoetryFest co-curators Vona Groarke and Nick Laird and poets Nuar Alsadir, Henri Cole, Leontia Flynn, John Kelly, Fran Lock, and Declan Ryan.

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Nick Laird "Dónal Óg" translated by Lady Gregory
Consul General Helena Nolan "Village II After Chagall, I and the Village" by Breda Wall Ryan
Pauline Turley "Diary" by Enda Wyley
Declan Ryan "Meeting Point" by Louis MacNeice
Henri Cole "The Blackbird of Glanmore" by Seamus Heaney
Nuar Alsadir "Things No Longer There" by Billy Ramsell
John Kelly "Epic" by Patrick Kavanagh
Rachael Gilkey "Aubade" by Nuala Ni Dhomnaill, translated by Michael Longley
Fran Lock "Night of The Morning" by Padraic Fiacc
Heather Clark "Night Feed" by Eavan Boland
Sara Mearns "Sunlight" by Seamus Heaney
Dael Orlandersmith "God Bless the Child" by Eleanora Fagan, also known as Billie Holiday
Isabella Hammad "Quarantine" by Eavan Boland
John Duddy "Hedgehog" by Paul Muldoon
Leontia Flynn "The Cold Heaven" by William Butler Yeats
Vona Groarke "Slips" by Medbh McGuckian

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 23 // 2PM, 3:30PM, 5PM
Free readings with festival poets

2pm // Declan Ryan and Maggie Millner
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3:30pm // Nuar Alsadir and Fran Lock
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5pm // Leontia Flynn and Henri Cole
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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 24 // 1PM, 2:30PM, 4PM
Free readings and conversations with festival poets

1pm // John Kelly and Ishion Hutchinson 
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2:30pm // Desert Island Poems: Shane McCrae and Vona Groarke, moderated by Nick Laird
Each poet chooses the five poems they would bring to a desert island with them.
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Vona Groarke

• "Poem #405" by Emily Dickinson 

•  "I Am Too Alone in the World and Not Alone Enough" by Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Robert Bly

• "Love Epigram" by Anonymous, translated by Sean O Faolain, from Love Poems of the Irish, A Selection by Sean Lucy

• "Five Flights Up" by Elizabeth Bishop, from Geography III

• "The Night Is Darkening Round Me" by Emily Bronte

Shane McCrae

• "Upon Wedlock, and Death of Children" by Edward Taylor

• "Tired" by Fenton Johnson 

• "Days" by Janet Lewis 

• "Poem on the Landscape Behind the Mona Lisa" by Medbh McGuckian 

• "The Year of the City One" by Priscilla Sneff

4pm // Shane McCrae and Vona Groarke
As part of the closing event, Irish Arts Center will premiere two new poetry films created by the Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation.
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Presented with generous support from The Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation, Culture Ireland, Northern Ireland Bureau, and Tourism Ireland.