- Gives readings throughout Britain,
Europe and elsewhere, at festivals or one-off events.
- Runs workshops for adults and
children. Frequent tutor of Arvon Courses. Writer in Residence at
Arts Centres (South Bank Centre), Universities (UEA; Reading),
Poetry Festivals (Aldeburgh; Ledbury, Stanza) and other
organisations. Regular visitor of schools, both primary and
secondary, including International Schools around Europe.
- Experienced in cross-arts projects,
in the South Bank Centre, Barbican Centre, Tate Gallery and
elsewhere, working with composers, visual artists, filmmakers,
animators, jazz and rock musicians.
- Judge of Poetry Competitions on many
occasions, including the National Poetry Competition and the Cardiff
Open, but also many smaller competitions.
- Book reviews for the Observer,
Times Educational Supplement and Poetry London.
- Frequent involvement in radio
programmes for BBC and other organisations. Occasional television
and video work.
- Currently trying to finish a
long-delayed book of stories. There is also
another children's novel that is awaiting publication, and a half-written joint
novel, with John Hartley Williams - a satirical thriller, set in the
world of contemporary poetry.
Black Moon (Cape, 2007)
Sanctuary (Cape,
2004)
Selected Poems (Cape,
2002); a variant of this published in Canada, in 2002, under the title
A Picnic on Ice by Signal Editions, Vehicule Press.
Up on the Roof: New and
Selected Poems (Faber, 2001)
A Smell of Fish (Cape, 2000)
The Bridal Suite (Cape, 1997)
Emergency Kit: Poems for Strange
Times
(Faber, 1996); co-editor (with Jo Shapcott).
More
publication details here...
"Ambitious and
troubling, linking Ireland to the Black Sea and madness to history, grim
as death and very funny, Black Moon insists that the worst is yet
to come, which may in turn bring out the best in Sweeney." Sean O’Brien:
Guardian Unlimited Book Review, August 2007.
http://books.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,330326683-110738,00.html
Alan Brownjohn in the Sunday
Times poetry round-up: ‘Haunting fables of entrapment or
imprisonment, of troubled sleep, of persecution and loneliness treated
with Kafkaesque attention to detail.’
'Funny, surreal, tender,
fantastic, earthy... '
(Helen Dunmore)
"He is the true master
of secret narratives... one of the best poets around."
John Lucas
"Twenty five years'
work finds Sweeney at fifty with a rich trove of memorable, funny,
alarming poems whose very readability at times disguises their complexity.
Here is a poet who has never allowed himself to be distracted - a poet,
too, whose work all those of us who think we know it well had better read
afresh."
Sean O'Brien, reviewing Sweeney's Selected Poems, Poetry London
"He is probably the
best example of modern pan-Europeanism in poetry.... Poets will
unmistakably see its freshness, its diversity and its originality. And it
is exactly this fact that makes Sanctuary a must-read."
Nicolas Cobic, The Wolf
"Sweeney keeps returning to the
thought of how much we have to negate in our effort to be ourselves, to
stay alive... Sweeney's imagination is fascinated by all the ways we say
no to experience, and how those denials build an enigmatic and above all
deeply personal architecture around us."
Clair Wills, The Irish Times
"Here is the fabulist's art,
simplicity of statement, a close logic in the sequence of actions, an
economy of images and characters. The effect is utterly cogent, yet it
defamiliarises what we know. Perception and logic are both exact, but
re-aligned at a slight variance from each other. We have seen this
defamiliarising purpose in Kafka, and in the work of Vasko Popa, Miroslav
Holub and others, but Sweeney makes of the method his own world."
Alan Gould , Quadrant
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(2007) |
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Black Moon: Programme of Readings in
Autumn 2007
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sep |
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Saturday 8 September:
Dresden Bardinale Festival, 8pm
Tuesday 11
September: Poetry Ireland, Dublin
Wednesday 12
September: The White House pub, Limerick (Contact: Dominic Taylor,
087 2996409 / whitehousepoets@eircom.net)
Thursday 13
September: Galway University (Contact: John Kenny / john.kenny@nuigalway.ie)
Friday 14 September:
Sheridan’s Wine Bar, Galway 8pm (Contact: Kevin Higgins /
kphiggins@hotmail.com)
Saturday 15
September: Rathmullan, Flight of the Earls Commemoration Programme
(Contact: Sean Hannigan / sean.hannigan@donegalcoco.ie)
Monday 17 September:
University of Chichester
Friday 21 September:
Jersey workshop
Saturday 22
September: Jersey Arts Centre, 8pm (Contact: Daniel Austin /
director@artscentre.je)
Monday 24 September:
Dumfries & Galloway Arts Centre
Tuesday 25
September: Oxfam benefit, Oxfam Bookshop, Marylebone (Contact Todd
Swift / toddswift@clara.co.uk)
Thursday 27
September: City Screen, York 7.30pm (Contact: Elizabeth Sandie,
01904 643129 / elizabeth.sandie@byinternet.com)
28 – 30 September:
Kings Lynn Festival
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oct |
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Tuesday 2 October:
Wordsworth Trust
Friday 5 October:
Sibiu/Hermannstadt Festival, Romania (check date)
Thursday 11 October:
Cheltenham Festival (plus workshop)
Friday 12 October:
Durham Literature Festival
Saturday 13 October:
Beverley Literature Festival
Sunday 14 October:
Beverley workshop
Sunday 14 October:
Ilkley Festival
Tuesday 16 October:
Nottingham Trent University (contact: John Lucas, 0115 9251827)
Thursday 18 October:
University of Hull (Contact: Cliff Foreshaw / c.foreshaw@hull.ac.uk)
Friday 19 October:
Wivenhoe, Essex (Contact: Chris Tanner / emma.chris@tiscali.co.uk)
Tuesday 23 October:
Royal Oak pub, Lewes (Contact: Mark Hewitt / mark.hewitt@virgin.net)
Thursday 25 October:
Dead Good Poets Society, Aberdeen (Contact: John Smith / jsmith@aberdeencity.gov.uk)
Saturday 27 October:
Preston (Contact: Alan Dent / alandent1@hotmail.com)
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nov |
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Tuesday 6 November:
Dylan Thomas Festival, Swansea (Contact: David Woolley / David.Woolley@swansea.gov.uk)
Thursday 8 November:
Oxford University Literary Society (Contact: Chloe Stopa-Hunt /
chloe.stopa-huntnew.ox.ac.uk)
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