Following on from the launch of the first issue at Casino Marino, The Storms is hosting an international launch via Zoom.
Featuring work from first-time published writers to award winning poets and established visual artists, The Storms, a new printed journal of poetry, prose and visual art, made in Ireland with international contributors, like its predecessor Eat the Storms, the poetry podcast, is intent on building connections across not only communities and continents but also across diverse forms of creative expression.
The journal was made possible thanks to an Agility Award given to editor-in-chief Damien B Donnelly from the Arts Council, Ireland and an Artist Support Scheme from the Fingal County Council/Fingal Arts.
Printed by Walsh Colour Print in Co Kerry, the glossy 107-page inaugural issue was launched on 21st August, on the steps of the Casino, in Marino, Dublin, an 18th century neoclassical building which epitomises art and culture, with thanks to the Office of Public Works as part of their Heritage Week celebrations.
Next up are the international launches. There will be a zoom launch on 10th September at 7pm GMT with free tickets available at Eventbrite https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/the-storms-journal-zoom-launch-tickets-408477135107
and finally there will be a special episode of the poetry podcast Eat the Storms, now available on 12+ platforms, on Saturday 24th September from 5pm, with over 50 writers reading their contributions under the theme Eat the Storms.
We had no idea what the future was going to hold back in 2020 when we didn’t even realize what normal was and now, while trying to comprehend a new version of another normal, those of us fortunate enough to have survived the pandemic are still facing the harsh reality of all that’s been left in the aftermath.
Today, beyond the 5km limits of recent years, having returned our bodies to both the comforting touch of others and the threat that lingers in each hand that takes hold of a weapon, the challenges are still as insurmountable and so, in its inaugural issue, The Storms explores not only the global stories but also the intimate struggles in dealing with the complexities of our own paths. As Doreen Duffy perfectly put it in her poem included in this issue
‘we’ll turn and look towards the line that divides the sea and sky and then we will remember…
this is only for a while.’
Editor-in-chief Damien B Donnelly is the Pushcart Prize nominated author of the poetry pamphlet Eat the Storms, the Stickleback micro-collection and the co-author of the conversational pamphlet In the Jitterfritz of Neon with Eilin de Paor. His first full collection Enough! was published on 29th August 2022 by The Hedgehog Poetry Press. Inaugural issue sub-editor Gaynor Kane is the author of Circling the Sun, Memory Forest, Venus in Pink Marble and her new pamphlet, Eight Types of Love, was published by The Hedgehog Poetry Press on 30th July.
The journal is available online from https://eatthestorms.com/2022/08/18/the-storms-inaugural-issue/ and is also available in Charlie Byrne’s in Galway, Books Upstairs and The Winding Stair Bookshop in Dublin and The Secret Bookshelf in Carrickfergus.
Submissions for Issue two will open at the end of September with a release date planned for the end of 2022. Full details will be available closer to the time at https://eatthestorms.com/the-storms-a-journal-of-poetry-prose-and-visual-art/