Three hundred bodies exhumed from a mass grave *in a fucking hospital* including the bodies of medics *still in scrubs and wearing handcuffs* and the loudmouths are sucking up all the energy arguing over whether students and other people are protesting the correct way

That is why they want to ailence us
lithub.com/palestinian-am…

Then on Wednesday morning at 10am Duck, Spring, Roll and I (@ThePigsBack1) will be chatting literary magazines with Lisa McInerney (@stingingfly), again with Jessica Traynor 😊at Cúirt Festival. Tickets and details here:
cuirt.ie/whats-on/frame…

Tomorrow I'll be in Galway to do a free reading at 9pm from The Conversation (Doire Press) at Cúirt Festival with Jo Burns, hosted by Jessica Traynor. Details below:
cuirt.ie/whats-on/jo-bu…

After sellout shows in Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Valencia, Rafeef Ziadah's 'Let it be a tale' comes to Ireland. Tues Hawk's Well Theatre Wed Lime Tree Theatre Thur 7pm Pavilion Cork.
Tkts for Sligo, Limerick, Cork, Galway, Dublin, Belfast, Newbridge here: linktr.ee/rafeeftour

Gorgeous times at #GranardBookTown today ✨

Some absolutely brilliant people have pulled together two alternative Eurovision events on May 10th they're fundraisers for various groups and artists in Gaza and they are a demonstration of our opposition to normalising genocide in the actual Eurovision.

Rafah is being decimated, there is nowhere else left to go. Israel is now bombing more than 1.7 million civilians trapped in Rafah, Gaza's last place of refuge. A massacre is happening in Rafah right now and the world is silent.

As my employer - Columbia University University - calls armed riot police into campus to smash a peaceful protest against a genocide, we must all speak out. My former students have been arrested. I'm proud of you. History will be too. Remember what I said in our first class last year:

My poem is also in this issue. Delighted to feature in a journal I respect so much. Looking forward to reading work by Joe Carrick-Varty Molly Twomey Róisín Leggett Bohan David Toms Manuela Moser Kathryn Bevis & many more! Thanks to editors Laura, Eimear Ryan & Jessica Traynor 🙏

Delighted to have a poem included - thanks Jessica Traynor - can't wait to read the new issue of Banshee Press 💫

So delighted with the line up in our beautiful summer issue ✨✨✨

.Poetry Ireland BBC Sounds BBC Radio 4 Jessica Traynor Colourscope (previously Rainbow Storytelling) Nandi Jola Jason Allen-Paisant The Library of Trinity College Dublin UCD Poetry MU Department of Communication Studies Martin Doyle Ronan McGreevy The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon Irish Times Culture @gail_mcconnell_ Irish Literary Society Irish Literary Times Kwame Dawes @poetrysocietyJA #poetry

“Anti-Muslim & anti-Palestinian voices have subjected me to a campaign of racist hatred because of my belief in human rights 4 all. I was hoping to use my commencement speech to inspire my class with a msg of hope. By canceling my speech USC is caving to fear & rewarding hatred”

Thursday!

Come join me & the marvellous Dani Gill for an afternoon of poetry & chats about radical kindness, matrilineal bonds & motherhood at #GranardBooktown this Sunday. So delighted to be part of this gorgeous programme. Tickets below! 👇🏻

eventbrite.ie/e/dani-gill-je…

Rehearsal today 1pm for group recitation of Refaat Alareer poem ‘If I must die’ in MU at Iontas Building.
To be performed Wed morning during Day of Action for Palestine.
If in MU, come along. Refaat Alareer was prof English at Islamic Univ Gaza killed 6 Dec 2023 by Israeli bomb

Jane Carke's TS Eliot's Writers' Notes have the same steady calm of her poems. This is a good read.

poetryschool.com/theblog/jane-c…

A reminder that Israel has dropped 70,000 tonnes of explosives on Gaza killing 34,000 people - inc. 14,000 children - and displacing 85% of the population. None of the bombs (many of which were dropped with the support/funding/sales from US govt & UK companies) were intercepted.