Bernard O’Donoghue, Zaffar Kunial, and Alannah Thornburgh

Readings from poets Bernard O’Donoghue and Zaffar Kunial, with live music from harpist and composer Alannah Thornburgh.

This event brings together three remarkable talents for a celebration of the old connection between music and poetry. Bernard O’Donoghue’s writing is characterised by unique narrative skill and a compassionate lyricism which have earned him a pre-eminent position in contemporary Irish poetry. His most recent collection is The Seasons of Cullen Church. His next book, The Anchorage, will be published by Faber next year.

In his two acclaimed books of poems, US and England’s Green (Faber), Zaffar Kunial has pursued a playful approach to language that maintains a verbal mastery in the exploration of memory, understanding and place. His poems reveal a rooted regard for England and English cultural experience, combined with a bracing focus on British colonial legacies.

Echoing an emphasis on landscape and animals in the poetry, this event will include a recital of original and traditional harp compositions by a leading light in the recent resurgence of Irish folk music and founding member of the band Alfi, Alannah Thornburgh (‘unforced, fluid and utterly at home in her own sound’ - Irish Times), whose debut solo album will be released later this year.

‘O’Donoghue writes with a crisp precision and the attractive style of a storyteller; but it is in the unfussy details that he gets to the heart of the significance of the smallest gestures and the quietest lives’ - Guardian

'Zaffar Kunial is a real find. His poems are precise, startling in their originality, full of grace. Kunial traces the roots in language to then track the roots in his mixed race identity, effortlessly transporting the reader from one place to another' - Jackie Kay

'Alannah Thornburgh is awe-inspiringly adept …’ - The Bluegrass Situation

‘Unforced, fluid and utterly at home in her own sound’ - Irish Times

More about Bernard O’Donoghue

Bernard O’Donoghue was born in Cork in 1945. He had a long career teaching medieval English and Modern Irish Poetry at Oxford, in Wadham College, of which he is an Emeritus Professor. He has published eight collections of poetry; the most recent being Farmer Cross, The Seasons of Cullen Church, and Selected Poems. His next book of poems The Anchorage will be published in 2025 by Faber and Faber. He has been the recipient of the Whitbread Poetry Award, and the Cholmondoley Award, and his books have also been shortlisted for the Irish Times Poetry Award, the Pigott Prize, and the TS Eliot Award.

Bernard Donoghue’s scholarly work includes a verse translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a critical study titled Seamus Heaney and the Language of Poetry, an anthology titled The Courtly Love Tradition, and, for Oxford University Press, A Very Short Introduction to Poetry. He is currently editing the Collected Poems of Seamus Heaney with Rosie Lavan.

More about Zaffar Kunial

Zaffar Kunial grew up in Birmingham, and currently lives in Yorkshire. He studied at the London School of Economics and later attended the poet Michael Donaghy’s classes at City University. A winner of the British National Poetry Competition in 2011, Kunial has published two acclaimed full length books of poems, both with Faber: US, and most recently England's Green, which won the Ledbury Hellens Poetry Prize for best second collection and was shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize and the T.S. Eliot Award.

More about Alannah Thornburgh

Alannah Thornburgh is an award-winning instrumentalist, recording artist and composer with a focus on traditional Irish harp. Her music explores her Mayo roots and family heritage, reimagining melodies from the Irish harping and American folk and jazz traditions. She has been described in the Irish Times as ‘unforced, fluid and utterly at home in her own sound’.

The recipient of an Arts Council Next Generation Award, she has been twice nominated for an RTE Folk Award, she is a founding member of the trad trio Alfi, who released their

debut album ‘Say Old Man’ in July 2023 to great critical acclaim - ‘the album captures the organic, full-bodied spirit of their live shows, as well as the distinctive personalities of the players – and marks Alfi as a vital force in Ireland’s ever- diversifying folk scene’ (Hot Press).

Alannah has performed and recorded with many artists in the folk and traditional music scene, including Anna Mieke, Brían Mac Gloinn (Ye Vagabonds), Lemoncello, Loah, Niamh Bury, Colm Mac Con Iomaire, Brigid Mae Power, Jiggy, David Keenan, Tristan Scroggins, Conor Caldwell, Gareth Quinn Redmond and Varo.

She featured on an RTÉ 1 Documentary ‘A Note for Nature’ in collaboration with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, performing her interpretation of a Conor Walsh composition ‘One Swallow’. Her debut solo album, Away with the Fairies, is due out later this year.

Listowel Writer's Week: where readers celebrate, and writers find their flow

Listowel Writer's Week is Ireland's oldest literary festival, and one of its most prestigious. Famously hospitable, the beautiful North Kerry town of Listowel is internationally renowned as a wellspring of literary inspiration and heritage. The 2024 Listowel Writer's Week Festival programme, exploring the theme Mother Nature, has been curated by the poet Martin Dyar.

See writersweek.ie for more details and the full 2024 festival programme

Disclaimer. Please be aware that many events at Listowel Writer's Week will be recorded and photographed for promotional and archival purposes. Your presence constitutes consent to be filmed and photographed. Thank you.