Comprising of 89 contributors from 13 different countries, issue V of The Storms, the printed journal of poetry, prose and visual arts will launch on 1 November at 2:30pm in Rathfarnham Castle in Dublin, with thanks to the OPW, followed by an online launch on Tuesday 4 Nov at 8pm while the poetry podcast, Eat the Storms, will host the audio companion to the journal on Sunday 2 Nov. The journal, supported by Fingal Arts / Fingal County Council and Dublin UNESCO City of Literature / Dublin City Council and printed in Co. Kerry by Walsh Color Print, is curated by editor-in-chief, Lusk based poet, writer and podcaster, Damien B. Donnelly and this year’s subeditor, Dublin’s Foxrock resident, writer Rhona Greene.
The new issue opens with a contemplation on existence, the study of life in the poem, Ayurveda, by Dublin based Australian poet, S. C. Flynn and what follows is, essentially, the essence of our limited days, our prints, paddings and percussions on this archipelago of the soul, while confronted by the gates of hell, that onslaught of voices rising from the amphitheatre of the damned. Along the way, we find ourselves in the company of gods, leaping from this mortal coil to bathe in the belly of the sanctuary, in myth, magic, as if the once mighty may offer us company, comfort, and condolence from the cold hand of reality and its caged animals and the misunderstandings of those closest to us, who would know us so well, had we been born with their tongue and not with that of an alien.
Subeditor Rhona Greene said of the process, ‘We waited, Damien and I, as the storms raged, holding [our] symmetric breaths together, not knowing what would become of the dream we shared. We stood at the frayed edges of humanity, looking through wildfire, out to sea, and you came, over the horizon, one by one, in your canoes, your coracles, your frail vessels – a global flotilla carrying the song of the past, the song of now, and the unformed songs of endless years to come, and you magicked something strong inside [our] veins. [We] felt the water was writing to [us].
Featuring an international lineup of emerging and established artists, including featured prose writer Sean McNicholl from Armagh, featured poet Özge Lena from Istanbul, Turkey, featured visual artist Carolyn Schlam from the USA, alongside Ashish Kumar Singh from India, Bello Taiwo Victoria from Nigeria, Robert Frede Kenter from Canada to Aosdána members Nuala O’Connor and Mary O’Donnell, visual artist Michelle Granville from Sligo, the Meskell Poet in Residence at the University of Limerick, Emily Cullen, Jack Kennedy from County Kerry, Susan Richardson in Tipperary, Thérèse Kieran from Belfast and our cover artist, Brian Malachy Quinn from Ohio, USA.
Meet the stars of Issue V here
The journal is available to buy online here at our shop (link below) and will be soon available at Books Upstairs and The Winding Stair Bookshop in Dublin, Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop in Galway and other independent bookstores around the country.
Storm Shelter 