In an intimate conversation, poets Leontia Flynn and Mícheál McCann present their new collections and discuss the questions, memories, and ideas that drive their work.

Both Flynn’s fifth collection Taking Liberties and McCann’s debut Devotion thoughtfully observe the complexities and contradictions innate to the human experience. Reflecting on parenthood and childhood, sex and sexuality, and private and public selves, these collections embrace and explore the duality that exists in all of us.

But woven throughout these meditations on life, death, and other big questions are small moments of pure joy – the pleasure of a shared meal or an escape to the Irish countryside – and connection to each other. Together they’ll discuss what inspires, perplexes, and intrigues them and what draws them to poetry as a form of expression.

Leontia Flynn has been described as ‘a poet who is not only one of the best writers of her generation but who seems, more and more, to be the voice of that generation’ (John McAuliffe, Irish Times). She was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2022, and is a professor at Queen’s University.

Mícheál McCann’s poems have appeared in Banshee, The Stinging Fly, The Poetry Review and Poetry Ireland Review, anthologized in Queering the Green and Romance Options and have been broadcast on RTÉ and BBC.

This event will be chaired by Annemarie Ní Churreáin, a poet whose works include Bloodroot, Town and The Poison Glen.

Presented in partnership with Poetry Ireland.