Landing Places

Editors Eva Bourke and Borbála Faragó present a timely and important anthology of poems by sixty-six poets, from all over the world, who have made their homes in Ireland and who contribute to, challenge and ultimately broaden the definiton of what is thought of as 'writing from Ireland'. "As its subtitle suggests, Landing Places is an anthology of immigrant poets living in Ireland. Of course it is not accidental that we, as editors, should be interested in and absorbed by the work of such writers since it touches upon our own personal lives. Both of us are ourselves immigrants to this country, and both of us are poets. Both of our families have a narrative of displacement, emigration, religious and political persecution reflecting centuries of a European history of war, expulsions, racism and ethnic cleansing. We know that, whether voluntary or forced, it is never easy to end one life and begin another elsewhere, leaving family and friends, one's familiar places and the sounds of one's language behind." -from The Introduction