LIMERICK Writers’ Centre meets off site at a welcoming venue for Tuesday September 1’s On the Nail, at The Loft overhead The Locke Bar & Restaurant. This gathering of literary folk is monthly, free and open to all comers.
Knute Skinner, a great favourite of this tabloid hack, is guest reader/ writer along with Clara Rose Thornton. Interestingly, both artists are America, Thornton from Chicago and Skinner from the Mid West, albeit based in Clare this longtime. Official notes from Dominic Taylor of the Centre on them are as follows:
Clara Rose Thornton is a Chicago-born spoken word artist who has lived in Dublin for the last two years, following a year-long working tour of Europe.
She is current Dublin Slam Poetry Champion, owning a fresh perspective: the first female to represent Dublin, the first black writer to do so, and only the second non-Irish. Performances pertain to social justice, identity politics, and place such as Nuyorican Poets Café in New York, Electric Picnic, International Literature Festival Dublin, Lingo Festival, Trinity College, Ó Bhéal in Cork.
RTÉ has been supportive of Thornton, and she writes about Irish culture and arts for the Irish Independent.
Knute Skinner has lived in County Clare since 1964 and his poetry has appeared widely in Ireland, Britain, Australia, and North America. For some years he taught literature and creative writing part of each year at Western Washington University. Skinner has also served as editor of Bellingham Review and director of Signpost Press, as well as on the editorial board of the Irish journal New Series: Departures.
He is the author of 11 collections of poetry, including Stretches (2002), The Cold Irish Earth—New & Selected Poems of Ireland (1997), and What Trudy Knows and Other Poems (1994), all from Salmon Publishing. Skinner’s poems have also appeared in numerous anthologies.
At The Locke on George’s Quay, know that there is an authors’ table always on the first Tuesday of the month for the sale or promotion of books, CDs, works, Chat to On the Nail organiser Dominic Taylor to make arrangements on [email protected]
Forás na Gaeilge and The Arts Council contribute to this regular platform for written and spoken word poetry and poets.
