Kerrie O’Brien's book will help the homeless
IT’S been a busy year for Dublin writer and poet Kerrie O’Brien. The first quarter of 2016 saw her holed up completing her debut book of poetry, Illuminate, which was released via Salmon Poetry at the beginning of October.
The second quarter involved her cradling the idea of a collection of Irish writing to raise money for homeless charities.
It culminated in Looking at the Stars, an extraordinary reflection of the writing scene in the country at the moment, includes new work by the likes of Donal Ryan, Sinead Gleeson, Kevin Barry, and Colin Barrett, as well as extracts from future work by Benjamin Black aka John Banville, Joseph O’Connor, and Belinda McKeon.
There is also work by users of the Dublin Simon Community. Only 1,000 copies of Looking at the Stars have been published, with all proceeds — ultimately €15,000 — to be donated to the emergency rough sleepers team of the Simon Community.
O’Brien, 29, says doing two books back to back like this wasn’t the plan. “I was happily trucking along, and seeing what I might do next. But it’s been the most rewarding year, I’ve been so proud of both books this year. It’s such a great way to end it.”
The 28-poem Illuminate is heavily influenced by Paris, where O’Brien has spent numerous weeks and months in the past couple years — there are poems named after luminaries such as Hemingway, Arbus, Beckett, and Matisse. A spiritual collection, she also ruminates on love (‘Bud’: “There needs to have been a winter/where you were bare/and elegant as an orchid”) and family (‘Sunday’: “Eighty years of you, still strong”).
The poetry book was a long time coming, she says. “I got the offer to publish a collection years ago, probably 2012, probably just after I brought out my little chapbook... But I always knew the work wasn’t good enough, I just wasn’t confident about it at all, and I didn’t want to bang out a collection for the sake of it.”
Though she is immensely proud of Looking at the Stars, the story behind its creation is a sad indictment of Ireland in 2016.
“This all started because I started talking to a girl on Grafton St, and she was homeless, she was from Limerick, and her name was also Kerrie. The reality is, it’s great we’ve done all this but she’s probably still sleeping rough tonight,” says O’Brien.
“I walk around Dublin, even last night, every doorway, every single street, there’s someone sleeping or begging so there’s still a lot that has to happen, so that’s why I want to raise awareness that this has to change, that the attitude towards this has to change. It’s not just a case of throwing money towards a charity. I think it’s bigger than that.”
O’Brien will be one of the many poets reading at Ó Bhéal’s Winter Warmer festival at the Kino in Cork this Friday and Saturday.
There will also be a special Looking at the Stars edition of Ó Bhéal next Monday above the Long Valley on Winthrop St. Readers confirmed include Pat Cotter, Thomas McCarthy, and Madeleine D’Arcy, as well as O’Brien herself.
O’Brien says she’s delighted and humbled to be asked to read at Ó Bhéal. “Looking at the Stars is made possible by writers who are generally underpaid and Irish literary organisations who are all completely underfunded. I think that’s a testament to all the amazing support of the literary community in Ireland at the moment, and that we need to support these organisations to support living writers.”
Illuminate and Looking at the Stars will be available at Ó Bhéal next Monday, and can be bought from Dubray Books (online and in shop) and the Gutter bookshop.
www.obheal.ie
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