Seated Woman. Leaning Woman. Weeping Woman. Pablo Picasso painted numerous portraits of the women in his life, but they were so much more than just muses for a man to capture.

Collaborative poetry collection The Conversation imagines a three-way dialogue amongst Picasso’s lovers and subjects Marie-Thérèse Walter, Dora Maar and Françoise Gilot. Their work and their lives were shaped by the renowned artist as they, in turn, shaped his; so why, then, do they mostly go unnamed in his depictions?

Formally innovative and highly imaginative, this collection draws on the three-dimensional women behind the two-dimensional renderings of one of the most celebrated artists in history. Join poets Jo Burns and Emily Cooper as they muse on the unsung inner lives, works, and achievements of the women who inspired such great works.

Emily Cooper is a poet and writer based in Donegal. Her poetry and prose has been published in The Stinging Fly, Banshee, Winter Papers and London Magazine, among others. She is also an editor for The Pig’s Back literary journal.

Jo Burns is the author of three poetry collections. She has won several Poetry Society Members Poems competitions, as well as the Magma Poetry Competition, the Irish Writers’ Festival Shirley McClure Prize, the Wild Word New Irish Writing in Germany Award, The Listowel Poetry Prize and The Poetry Society UK Hamish Canham Poetry Prize.

Presented in partnership with Doire Press.