Katie Donovan interviews & reviews for May Swim
'Generous, vivid and forthright, these are poems that cleverly balance tenderness with advocacy; resignation with commendable resolve.' – Vona Groarke, The Irish Times, on May Swim
Irish poet Katie Donovan's sixth poetry book May Swim was published by Bloodaxe in May 2024. In this candid and uncompromising collection, poems of loss, widowhood and ageing co-exist with observations of her wild garden and its inhabitants, informed by wider concerns about the environment and climate change.
May Swim follows Katie Donovan's fifth book of poetry Off Duty (2016), which was shortlisted for the Irish Times–Poetry Now Award 2017. Katie Donovan was awarded the 21st Lawrence O’Shaughnessy Poetry Award in April 2017.
Katie launched May Swim online with Bloodaxe on 21 May 2024, and in person in Dublin & Galway.
Scroll down to see a video of the joint launch event, and to watch a film of Katie Donovan reading poems from May Swim.
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The month prior to publication of May Swim, the title poem from Katie Donovan's fifth poetry book Off Duty was featured as Steve Whitaker’s Poem of the Week in the Yorkshire Times. Read online here.
‘Katie Donovan’s fine poem of disordered grief yields an honest approximation to that strange, unanticipated state of numbness that follows close on bereavement.’ – Steve Whitaker, Poem of the Week, Yorkshire Times
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PODCAST READING BY KATIE DONOVAN
Eat the Storms, Episode 11, Season 9, 28 December 2024
Katie Donovan was feautred on Episode 11 of season 9 of the Irish podcast Eat the Storms, which is hosted by poet Damien B. Donnelly.
Katie was recorded at her home in Dalkey. She read and introduced her poems ‘Deluge’, ‘May Swim’, ‘The Seal’ and ‘Dancing Queens’ from her sixth book of poetry May Swim.
‘This episode of the poetry podcast featured Katie Donovan, James McConachie, Carmel McKeown and a Behind the Storms conversation with Mark Ward. Hosted and produced by Damien B. Donnelly.’
Katie appears first.
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/eat-the-storms-episode-11-season-9/id1530096967?i=1000681956277
PODCAST INTERVIEW WITH KATIE DONOVAN
Books for Breakfast, Episode 66: Mícheál McCann and Katie Donovan, 3 October 2024
Irish poet Katie Donovan was interviewed on Episode 66 of the Books for Breakfast podcast on 3 October. She was in conversation with hosts Peter Sirr and Enda Wyley and read and discussed poems from her sixth book of poetry May Swim.
In the introduction, Katie read section IV of her poem ‘Foxed’. Enda referred to a number of other poems from the collection, and asked Katie to read and introduce ‘Archaeology’. Later in the podcast she read the title poem, ‘May Swim, White Rock, 2020’.
For the Toaster Challenge, Katie read and introduced ‘Jaguar Girl’ from fellow Bloodaxe poet Pascale Petit’s seventh collection Mama Amazonica.
‘Today's show features conversation and poems from two poets with new collections: Katie Donovan, whose collection May Swim, is published by Bloodaxe Books, and Mícheál McCann, whose debut collection Devotion, is published by Gallery Press. Both poets take on the Toaster Challenge, this time a Toaster Poem Challenge. Micheál' choice is Louise Glück's 'Sunset' from her collection The Wild Iris, while Katie chooses Pascale Petit's ‘Jaguar Girl.’ from Mama Amazonica.’
Katie and Mícheál are interviewed in turn over the course of the programme. Katie features in the intro & from 5.25, from 14:44 and finally from 23:49. Katie introduces Pascale’s poem at 33.04.
ONLINE REVIEW COVERAGE
The Friday Poem, online 3 October 2024
An excellent in-depth review of Irish poet Katie Donovan’s sixth book of poetry May Swim went online in The Friday Poem on 3 October.
‘These are poems about near despair and stubborn hope. What makes May Swim so special is how Donovan reveals these states and entities as symbiotic; we are all connected to each other, to the natural environment, to the generations that preceded us and to those who will follow. The tensions between oppositional states, rather than dividing us, are the very things that bring us together, offer hope, balance us, and create a whole and teeming world.’ – Isabelle Thompson, The Friday Poem
https://thefridaypoem.com/may-swim-katie-donovan/
REVIEW FOR KATIE DONOVAN IN THE IRISH TIMES
May Swim was very well reviewed by Vona Groarke in the 'new poetry' feature in The Irish Times of 24 August 2024.
'In Katie Donovan’s May Swim, an animating tension runs between the experience of loss and the possibility of salvage [...] Generous, vivid and forthright, these are poems that cleverly balance tenderness with advocacy; resignation with commendable resolve.' – Vona Groarke, The Irish Times
In print. The online edition of the article is available in full by subscription:
FEATURE ON KATIE DONOVAN’S WORK IN DUBLIN REVIEW OF BOOKS
Dublin Review of Books, online 28 August 2024
An essay on Katie Donovan’s poetry went online in Dublin Review of Books on 28 August. It refers in some detail to her fifth poetry book Off Duty as well as her poetry more generally.
'Throughout Donovan’s work, the flourishing of her own senses, the rich complexity of the human and natural habitats she explores, are interwoven with a steely awareness of finitudes – like a truncated spool of music, or a falling aria that ends in enveloping darkness.' – Ciarán O’Rourke, Dublin Review of Books
https://drb.ie/the-invisible-heart/
PODCAST INTERVIEW WITH KATIE DONOVAN
The Shaking Bog Podcast: Katie Donovan, online 27 June 2024
An interview with Katie Donovan featured on June edition of The Shaking Bog Podcast. The recording was made on the beach where Katie goes to swim – the setting of her title poem of her sixth book of poetry May Swim. Katie read her poem ‘May Swim, White Rock, 2020’ and spoke about her poetry in general, and about the process of bringing a collection together.
‘In this episode of The Shaking Bog Podcast we celebrate a new collection of poems – May Swim – by the acclaimed poet Katie Donovan. Katie lives near White Rock Beach in Killiney and this podcast was recorded beside the sea and leads the listener on a gentle meander through her reflections, memories and observations along with readings of selected poems from the new collection. This podcast also includes music, inspired by the sea, from the wonderful Wicklow based songwriter, composer and musician Rónán Ó Snoidaigh.’
https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/the-shaking-bog-podcast/id1533031974?i=1000660457324
INTERVIEW WITH KATIE DONOVAN ON POETRY PEOPLE
Poetry People, RTÉ Radio 1, Sunday 12 May 2024, 7-7.30pm
Katie Donovan was Rachael Hegarty's guest on the new RTÉ Radio 1 weekly poetry series Poetry People on Sunday 12 May. Katie spoke about her new collection May Swim and about her work as a trauma therapist. Rachael described May Swim as a book of ‘personal loss, love and recovery.’
Katie read and introduced three poems from May Swim: ‘Snowman’, ‘‘May Swim, White Rock, 2020’ and ‘The Dancing Queens’.
A clip of one of Katie’s readings in the intro (from 6:52) and then her interview is from 17:36.
https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/poetry-people/2024/0512/1448767-copied-property-last-one-on-the-train-sunday-12-may-2024/
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ONLINE LAUNCH EVENT FOR MAY SWIM, 21 MAY 2024
Amanda Dalton, Imtiaz Dharker and Katie Donovan launched their new collections online with Bloodaxe on 21 May 2024, joining from their homes in Hebden Bridge, London and Dublin. The poets read from their new books Fantastic Voyage, Shadow Reader and May Swim, and discussed them with each other and with the host, editor Neil Astley. Excellent readings by all three poets, followed by a wide-ranging and fascinating discussion about writing in response to loss, and also about how their work in other areas – art, drama and therapy – feeds into their poetry. Katie read last in each set.
Katie Donovan reads from May Swim
Katie Donovan reads and introduces six poems from May Swim: ‘Two Women, One Grave’, ‘Deluge’, ‘May Swim’, ‘The Seal’, ‘Stories’ and ‘Home to Vote’. Neil Astley filmed her reading from her new collection at her home in Dalkey, Dublin, in April 2024 ahead of the book’s publication in May 2024.
SOME INTERVIEWS & REVIEWS FOR OFF DUTY
ONLINE MAGAZINE INTERVIEW WITH KATIE DONOVAN
The Gloss, Writer’s Block Interview, online Friday 20 April 2018
Interview with Katie Donovan in the online edition of The Gloss magazine’s Writer’s Block feature. She spoke to Sophie Graham about finding time to write, about meeting the Irish President and about her fifth book of poetry Off Duty.
Click here to read.
VIDEO INTERVIEW
The Attic Sessions #10: In Conversation with Katie Donovan, January 2017
Katie Donovan was interviewed by Nessa O’Mahony for the tenth in a series of video interviews, The Attic Sessions. This 40-minute podcast went online in January. Katie spoke in depth about her new collection Off Duty and read the poems ‘Arrival’ and ‘Operation’ from it.
Since the interview went online, Katie Donovan has been named as the next recipient of the prestigious American prize honouring Irish poets, the Lawrence O’Shaughnessy Poetry Award. Her , and her fifth collection Off Duty has also been shortlisted for the Irish Times-Poetry Now Award 2017.
‘This month we are joined in the attic by Irish poet Katie Donovan, who talks to us about her career as a writer. She also reads some poems from her latest poetry collection Off Duty (Bloodaxe, 2016).’
Click here to watch the interview. Katie Donovan speaks about Off Duty and reads two poems from it at 23.45.
WORLD RADIO INTERVIEW
Outlook, BBC World Service, Wednesday 12 October 2016, 12.06-1pm
A very moving interview with Irish poet Katie Donovan went out on the BBC World Service's Outlook programme on 12 October 2016. She was speaking to Matthew Bannister about the poems she wrote about her late husband’s cancer, which have now been published in her fifth collection Off Duty. She read the poems ‘The Next Exit’ and ‘‘Will You Be There?’’, which is written partly in her son’s voice. The interview was recorded down the line from Dublin.
Click here to listen (forward to 35.54 to hear Katie Donovan)
‘Throughout the collection, Donovan’s voice remains relatable, despite her extraordinary circumstance. She does not romanticise death, or the dying; nor does she make excuses for any ugliness she finds within herself. Yet in ascribing such a tapestry of thoughts and feelings to trauma, she is able to tenderly replicate her experience in all its contradictions; in both its darkness and its light. Off Duty is certainly an account of grieving, for the dead and the dying, but it’s also a study of those who go on living, and who, in time, will thrive again.’ – Julia O’Mahony, Dublin Review of Books
Click here to read Julia's full essay-review of Off Duty in Dublin Review of Books
‘It’s been a long while since a collection has moved me quite so much and took me upon such a switchback ride from antipathy to admiration to respect… This is a harrowing, heart-breaking and necessary book to which I cannot do justice in a few hundred words.’ – Martin Malone, Poetry Ireland Review [on Off Duty]
[13 May 2024]
