March Launch of Flower Press: A Poetry Collection by MA in Writing Student at NUI Galway

The MA in Writing at NUI Galway and Onslaught Press invite you to celebrate the launch of ‘Flower Press’ poetry collection by Alicia Kinsella on Thursday, 15 March at 6.30pm at the University. Alice was born in Dublin and raised in Claremorris, Co. Mayo, and is currently studying poetry and fiction in the MA in Writing at NUI Galway.

This short collection of poems can be described as an elegiac apostrophe. In three sections; Bud, Bloom, and Blood, it explores the growth of love in childhood, the loss of innocence, and the fallout of that loss.

Dr John Kenny, Director of the MA in Writing at NUI Galway, said:  “It is a rare occurrence indeed that a student still only halfway through the MA stage would have a range of poetic work of sufficient accomplishment as to be so eminently worthy of a first collection. Alice Kinsella is an impressive devotee of the art of poetry -Flower Press promises to be a real joy in itself for all readers and a major inspiration for other students keen to get their work successfully out into the world.”

While these poems take place in the world of pretence: childhood fantasies, imaginings fuelled by mythology, and the unreliable narrative of the human memory, it is the physical details, the lingering on physical sensations, smells, tastes, and personal totems, that gives the poems the life that allows them to explore the emotional, psychological, and moral questions that they raise. However, Flower Press does not claim to offer answers, but the consolation of the act of remembering.

Sinéad Gleeson, Writer, Editor, Freelance Broadcaster and Journalist describes Flower Press as “Intimate, lyrical and full of pathos. Alice Kinsella brings an otherworldly quality to the quotidian, in work that is unsettling and transformative. Flower Press is a debut of rare beauty, revealing multiple epiphanies and the power of the poet’s wielded pen.”

Alice, Author of Flower Press said: “I'm honoured to have Flower Press launched by the MA in Writing programme. This wouldn't be possible without the generosity and kindness of John Kenny and my classmates. The MA provides a wonderful home for emerging writers in Galway, I'm so lucky to be among them.”

The launch will take place in the Moore Institute, Hardiman Research Building, Room G010, NUI Galway. Refreshments will be served on the night and all welcome.

For more information visit:  http://aliceekinsella.com/

-Ends-