Chapter 24 - Contemporary Irish Women’s Poetry, beyond the Now

Summary

Irish poetry published in the last decade has witnessed much experiment and transformation. In the work of Annemarie Ní Chuirreáin, Kimberly Campanello, Kathy D’Arcy and other women poets, questions of embodiment are often to the fore, as liberation from inherited patriarchal spaces occasions the discovery of new and unsettling poetic forms. Identity becomes a site of resistance but also of danger, as conservative critics attempt to box new writing in with dismissive appeals to ‘identity politics’ and a presumed, limiting autobiographical basis to writing on intimate subjects. The diversification of Irish poetry has meant the emergence of voices such as Felicia Olusanya, Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe, and Chiamaka Enyi-Amadi, sometimes coming from the spoken word scene, but also across a whole panoply of new creative platforms, alongside more traditional page poetry. Close attention will therefore be paid to the modes of production, circulation, and collaboration in which this urgent new work is being produced.