Readings
Solace in Sound: Exploring the Landscape of Grief - Jane gave a reading with fellow Bloodaxe poets Heidi Williamson & Philip Gross in the Stay At Home Literary Festival, 7 May 2021. The reading is available to view on the Stay At Home Festival YouTube channel.
Jane read and discussed her work with the Fieldwork Book Club online, 6th May 2021.
Jane performed her poems 'In Glasnevin' (When the Tree Falls) and 'Pentonville Prison, 1916' (unpublished) in Bob Gallagher's film Aiteach: From Cú Chulainn to The Quare Fellow, an exploration of sexual identities in Irish music and literary traditions. The film was first aired on Saturday 24 April as part of the Music Town Festival.
Jane read two poems online as part of the At Home on the Farm exhibition by Mary Burke in the Limerick City Art Gallery.
On 28 March 2021 Jane joined other Roscommon poets, musicians and artists for an online commemoration of all who died in County Roscommon over the past year. "Roscommon Remembers" was recorded and is available to watch here on the Roscommon Leader Partnership Facebook Page.
On International Women's Day, 8th March 2021, the Women of Wicklow Social Inclusion Network invited Jane to read poems in celebration of women's community work with the theme of "Everyday Heroes".
Jane read with the US poet Teri Cross Davis at the Café Muse Literary Salon on Monday 1 March 2021. Café Muse is hosted by The Word Works, a nonprofit literary and educational organisation based in Washington DC. The reading is available to watch here.
Jane read and discussed her work with the online At Home with Poetry Group on Thursday 25 February 2021.
On St. Brigid's Day, 1 February 2021, the Irish Literary Society celebrated the publication of Days of Clear Light, a Festschrift to mark 40 years of Salmon Publishing. Jane recorded her poem 'The Lookout' for the event which included an interview with Jessie Lendennie and readings by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Gerald Dawe, Martina Evans and Nessa O'Mahony. The event was recorded and is available on YouTube here.
For the last of the Roscommon Arts Centre 12 Days of Poems for Christmas Jane reads Emily Dickinson's 'Before the ice is in the pools' and her own poem 'Swans at Christmas'.
Jane read with US poet Jane Hirshfield and Indian poet Arundhathi Subramaniam for an online event hosted by Neil Astley and Bloodaxe Books. The reading & discussion was live streamed on 15 December 2020 and is now available on YouTube here.
Jane read 'Metastasis' from When the Tree Falls (Bloodaxe Books 2019) at "A Kaleidoscope of Poetry" presented online by the Mary Evans Picture Library in January 2021.
In December 2020 Jane read three poems for the Embassy of Ireland, Belgium. The poems were broadcast on twitter as part of an online festival of music and poetry for the festive season: When Winter Comes from When the Tree Falls, Snow from All the Way Home and Sing from The River.
Jane read alongside Hong Kong poet Mary Jean Chan and Indian poet Ranjit Hoskote at the online Ó Bhéal Winter Warmer Festival of Poetry, Saturday 28th November 2020. The reading was recorded and is available to watch here.
Jane joined James Rebanks (The Shepherd's Life & English Pastoral) online at the Burren Beo Trust Winterage Weekend on Wednesday 21 October at 8pm. Jane read from her two collections and spoke about how growing up on a farm inspired her poetry. The event was recorded and is available here.
Jane read poetry and talked about poetry of place with poets Keith Payne and Judy O'Kane at the 2020 Red Line Book Festival. You can watch the reading and discussion here.
Jane reads her Miners' Way sequence of poems in this podcast developed by Wicklow Arts Office. The seven poems were written in response to the lives of miners in Co. Wicklow from the 1800s up to the 1950s. This 16 minute reading was recorded on location in Glendalough, Co. Wicklow. You can download the reading & the accompanying map to your mobile device and listen to the poems as you walk this section of The Miners' Way alongside Glendalough Upper Lake to The Miner's Village.
Jane gave a reading on 18 September, Culture Night 2020 as part of a unique outdoors event. She and the historian Joan Kavanagh led a 5 km walk from the Upper Lake Car Park at Glendalough to the Miners' Village. Joan spoke about the mining history and Jane read poems inspired by the lives of the miners.
Jane gave a reading from her home as part of the Inside Writing digital poetry festival organised by Newcastle Centre for Literary Arts in lieu of the annual Newcastle Poetry Festival. Her readings were shared online during the week of 15-19 June 2020. She read and introduced poems from When the Tree Falls: 'He stood at the top of the stairs', 'I've got you' and 'The trouble'. You can watch her reading here.
She went on to read two new poems, 'April Wake' and 'First Earlies'. The poems are included on Machester Writing School's WRITE where we are NOW website, which gathers together poems written in response to the coronavirus pandemic. You can read the poems here and here.
Jane read a new poem, 'Night Boat, North Wall Quay' for the Bloomsday Festival 2020, 16 June. Commissioned by the James Joyce Centre, the poem celebrates Nora Barnacle.
Jane read two poems and chatted with Siobhan McMahon in Part 1 of a series of programmes from East Leeds FM in conjunction with the Irish Music Foundation: Tuesday 2 June 6.30 - 7.30pm https://www.chapelfm.co.uk/elfm-player/.
Black Tea & Birdsong: Jane chatted to Dani Gill & read poems from When the Tree Falls in an episode from the LIVE Network, aired on 29 May 2020. The reading was sponsored by Roscommon Arts Centre.
Jane introduced & read a new poem, 'First Earlies' for the RTE Poetry Programme, "Poetry in a Pandemic" on Monday 1 June, 1.30-2pm. It's part of her sequence of Poems from the Uplands, funded by the Arts Council Covid-19 Response Award.
Jane read 'Cattle Stick' from When the Tree Falls for Poetry File on Saturday Weekend Drive with Evelyn Grant on RTE Lyric FM, 30 May 2020.
Jane gave a YouTube LIVE reading from her home in Glenmalure on Saturday 25 April. It was organised by the Holding Cell and is now available here on Jane's YouTube channel.
Jane read a new sequence of poems inspired by the natural & cultural heritage of Wicklow in 'The Miners' Way', which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Sunday 3rd May, 16.30 & repeated Saturday 9th May, 23.30. She also read 'Birthing the Lamb' from her second collection When the Tree Falls, Bloodaxe Books 2019.
Sadly all other readings in April, May, June & July 2020 have been cancelled or postponed due to the Covid-19 public health crisis. These events included Cork International Poetry Festival; Mountains to Sea dlr Book Festival; Ty Newydd Writing Centre, Wales; Strokestown International Poetry Festival; Coolock & Walkinstown Public Libraries, Dublin; Rural Writing Institute, Cumbria; Emma's Dell, Grasmere, Cumbria; Hecho, Spain; Bailieborough, Co. Cavan.
Heinrich Böll Residency: Jane will have a writing residency in the Heinrich Böll Cottage on Achill Island from 22 August - 5 September 2020.
