\n
<\/a><\/p>\n for the <\/font>Cork<\/font> Harbour<\/font> Festival<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n Luisa Castro<\/strong> with<\/em><\/font> Keith Payne<\/strong> and Katrina Naomi<\/strong> First published to immediate and critical acclaim in 1988, Castro\u2019s Baleas e Baleas<\/em> (Whales and Whales), is considered one of the most pivotal collections in contemporary Galician poetry. It was reissued in 1996 in a bilingual Galician-Castilian version by Hiperi\u00f3n, and was recovered once more in Castro\u2019s Collected Poetry, also by Hiperi\u00f3n, in 2004. A 30th anniversary edition, re-edited by poet and critic Ismael Ramos, appeared with Galaxia in 2018. <\/p>\n “In the last 30 years, whenever there has been an aesthetic renewal or a shift in the direction of Galician poetry, \u2018Whales and Whales\u2019 has been there,\u201d – Ismael Ramos<\/strong>, poet, editor and coordinator of new projects at Galaxia publishing. <\/em><\/p>\n Battery Rocks<\/em> is a meditation on nature, risk, swimming and the sea; the collection includes the poem ‘in the kelp forest’, which recently won the prestigious Keats-Shelley Prize for Poetry.<\/p>\n “In this, my fourth full poetry collection, I return to a Cornish swimming spot \u2013 Battery Rocks in Penzance – every day for a year. On each swim, I find something fresh and invigorating, whether this is an encounter with a bull seal or a jellyfish, an insight into the conflict in Palestine or the scourge of second homes, or a realisation about myself. Battery Rocks examines issues of fear, strength and vulnerability; I write in response to a violent sexual assault and other experienced attacks. In the collection, I question how I can feel safer alone, in a raging sea in winter, in nothing but a swimming costume, than on dry land. I also approach the climate emergency from aslant, offering several new takes on one of the most pressing concerns of our times.”<\/p>\n ‘With this powerful new collection Katrina Naomi becomes one of the foremost voices of her generation.’<\/em> – Penelope Shuttle <\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n \n <\/p>\n
\n(via Zoom)<\/font> (in-person)<\/font> (in-person)<\/font> <\/center><\/p>\n
\n
\n![](\"https:\/\/www.obheal.ie\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/LuisaCastroSm.jpg\")
<\/span>Luisa Castro <\/strong> is the author of nine collections of poetry and six novels. She has been awarded the King Juan Carlos Prize, The Hiperion Prize and the Herralde Prize among others. She was Director of the Cervantes Institute in Naples (2012-2017), Bordeaux (2017-2022), and is currently Director of the Cervantes Institute in Dublin (2022-present). She is a regular contributor to the Spanish El Pa\u00eds newspaper and celebrated as one of the most important voices in contemporary Galician poetry. <\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.obheal.ie\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/KeithPayneSm.jpg\")
<\/span><\/font>Keith Payne<\/strong> is the author of nine collections of poetry in translation and original poetry, most recently Building the Boat<\/em>, published in 2023 as part of his Eco-Poet in Residency at Cork City Library and featured on BBC Radio 4\u2019s The Essay<\/em>. He co-edited A Different Eden: Ecopoetry from Ireland and Galicia<\/em> (Dedalus Press, 2021), was Red Line Book Festival Poet in Residence (2021), John Broderick Writer in Residence (2021-22) and Cork City Library Eco Poet in Residence (2023). He curates the Aodh Ruadh \u00d3 Domhnaill Poetry Exchange between Ireland and Galicia and was awarded an Artist in the Community Scheme from Create in 2022 and an Art\u2019s Council Literature Bursary the same year. He shares his time between Ireland and Galicia. Whales and Whales<\/em>, from the Galician of Luisa Castro, is published by Skein Press. <\/font>
\n <\/p>\n
\n
\n![](\"https:\/\/www.obheal.ie\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/KatrinaNaomiSm.jpg\")
<\/span>Katrina Naomi<\/strong> is an award-winning poet, performer, mentor and poetry judge. Her poetry collections have won an Authors’ Foundation Award and Saboteur Award, and she is a recipient of the Keats-Shelley Prize. Her fourth collection, Battery Rocks<\/em>, is due in July 2024. Katrina’s poetry has appeared on Poems on the Underground<\/em>, BBC Radio 4’s Front Row<\/em> and Poetry Please<\/em>, and in The TLS, The Poetry Review<\/em> and Poetry Ireland Review<\/em>. Katrina holds a PhD in creative writing from Goldsmiths and is chair of the UK’s Society of Authors’ Poetry & Spoken Word committee. Katrina lives in Penzance, Cornwall.<\/p>\n
\n
\n