Maura Dooley events
'Commanding and quietly layered, these lyrically precise and subtle poems deserve revisiting.' - Maya C. Popa, Publishers' Weekly, on Five Fifty-Five
Five Fifty-Five is Maura Dooley's sixth collection, her first book since The Silvering (2016). It was published in April 2023 by Bloodaxe Books. A video of Maura's joint launch reading is below.
These are quizzical poems concerned with time and mortality which ask fundamental questions about our lives, such as Where have you gone? and Who were you anyway? She tries to find out through conversations with, among others, Louisa M. Alcott, Hokusai, Jane Austen, Buzz Aldrin, Anne Tyler and the Great Uncle and Grandfather she never knew.
Maura Dooley's translation of the work of exiled Iranian poet Azita Ghahreman, Negative of a Group Photograph, was co-published by Bloodaxe Books and the Poetry Translation Centre in October 2018. Maura regularly gives readings and also runs workshops and poetry courses.
'I feel that the special gift of all the writing in Five Fifty-Five is to refresh and heighten our perceptions. Dooley’s talent for metaphor gives her writing imaginative drive in a very obvious way. More elusively, her poetry’s enchanting of the world depends on an indefinable rightness, beauty, evocativeness in the very sound and flow of her lines, and on her tact in surrounding words with pauses and breathing spaces within which the reader’s own thoughts can grow.' - Edmund Prestwich, London Grip
Read the full in-depth review in London Grip here.
A review of Five Fifty-Five in Publishers' Weekly here. The book is distributed in the US via Consortium Book Sales.
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
Tuesday 25 June 2024, 7.30pm
South Downs Poetry Festival: Poetry and Jazz Café
Assembly Room, Chichester, PO19 1LQ
Acclaimed poets Maura Dooley and Jeremy Page link with Mike Carey’s Big House Jazz Band to entertain and inspire. Plus the launch of Poetry & All That Jazz magazine with South Downs poets. Enjoy a delightful mix of words and music with complimentary homemade cake.
Tickets £15 (students £12) - more information and booking here.
Monday 2 September - Saturday 7 September 2024
Summer Poetry Masterclass
Tŷ Newydd Writing Centre, Wales.
Maura Dooley will be teaching at this week-long course alongside Gillian Clarke. This masterclass is aimed at committed poets aiming to further develop their writing. The week will feature a group workshop each morning to prompt the creation of new poems. The course will feature a reading from the tutors and from guest reader Imtiaz Dharker.
Deadline for applications: 30 June
More information here.
PAST EVENTS
Bloodaxe Books international poetry live-streamed reading (April 2023 book launch)
Maura Dooley read alongside Harry Clifton and Matthew Hollis as all three poets launched their new Bloodaxe collections. After their readings, they discussed their books with each other and with Bloodaxe editor Neil Astley. Maura Dooley read second in each set.
[12 April 2023]
