BOOK LAUNCH Unbridled Joy by Joan McBreen

Joan McBreen has published several poetry collections including The Wind Beyond the Wall (1990), A Walled Garden in Moylough (1995)(Salmon Poetry and Story Line Press), Winter in the Eye – New and Selected Poems (2003), Heather Island (2009), Map and Atlas (2017) all published by Salmon Poetry.

She edited and published two anthologies, The White Page/ An Bhileog Bhán – Twentieth- Century Irish Women Poets(Salmon, 1999)and The Watchful Heart: A New Generation of Irish Poets-Poems and Essays (Salmon, 2009).

Her most recent and sixth collection, Unbridled Joy, affirms her place as one of the most distinctive poetic voices from the West of Ireland, her work suffused with a quiet intensity, lyrical clarity and deep connection to place.

Her poetry has been widely published, anthologised, and translated internationally. She has also recorded two CDs, The Long Light on the Land and The Mountain Ash in Connemara, both combining her poetry with traditional Irish and classical music. A special limited-edition broadside of The Mountain Ash was published in 2015 in collaboration with artist Margaret Irwin West and Artisan House in Connemara.

She has long been associated with major literary events in Ireland, including the Clifden Arts Festival, Cúirt, the Yeats International Summer School, and Listowel Writers’ Week. A former board member of Poetry Ireland, Joan remains actively involved in the annual Strokestown International Poetry Festival.

Unbridled Joy will be launched by Thomas McCarthy and Gabriel Fitzmaurice.