Cork International Poetry Festival: Dean Browne wins Farmgate Poetry Award
Dean Browne is the winner of a prestigious poetry prize in Cork.
The “benign indifference” of poet Dean Browne’s parents towards their son’s life choice, followed by acceptance, could be said to have paid off. As part of the Cork International Poetry Festival, Browne has been revealed as the winner of the Farmgate Café National Poetry Award, worth €2,000.
This surrealist poet, influenced by the late Cork-based poet Matthew Sweeney who was a friend and mentor of his, won the award for his debut collection, published by Picador.
Browne, who is this year’s writer-in-residence at UCC, his alma mater, describes himself as a full-time poet who has a Master’s degree in English but is most definitely not in an ivory tower. The Tipperary-born opted not to pursue a doctorate, choosing instead to work at various jobs, sometimes manually, such as farming in Canada. He also did bar work in Berlin as well as working in a call centre, and describes living in the German capital as "exhilarating".
The farm work was something he thought would benefit his poetry. “While the jobs were a means to an end, I thought the farming would make its way into my poems one day so in that sense, it had a purpose, not just making ends meet.”
The 32-year-old cites Billy Ramsell’s collection Render as another influence, as well as the absurdism of James Tait’s poetry.
From the age of 15, Browne says knew he would always write poetry. “I think poetry is the best way for bringing into confluence my actual life and my imaginative life. I have a double life in that kind of way. I live just as much in my imagination as in reality. It’s to do with language; ways of refreshing ordinary perceptions of things.
"It’s kind of hard to parse and codify my influences because there are so many that aren’t even poetry. It’s a mystery how those things come together. In After Party, there’s a strong strain of elegy, in response to friends dying young (some by suicide.)”
Browne likes to get close to the “subjective truth” of a thing rather than how it manifests in reality. And he is always on the job. “A day wouldn’t go by where I wouldn’t write down a line or a phrase that might end up becoming a seed for a poem. It’s a way of showing that part of my mind where the work comes from that I’m paying attention to it.”
He believes in daydreaming. “I would try to allow space for that. Everyone should really. There is always so much pressure on us to be ‘doing’ and contributing. There’s something to be said for not contributing for a day, stepping aside from the capitalistic system to read a poem. It can be liberating.”
Browne is currently meeting his students of creative writing, on a one-to-one basis. “They’re a good bunch; talented and receptive to critique.” Not doing a creative writing degree wasn’t so much a decision on Browne’s part, but rather down to the fact that he couldn’t afford the fees. “But as Kavanagh said, ‘if there’s talent, it will burst a road.’”
Winning the Farmgate Award is, says Browne, hugely validating. “The Farmgate is a kind of hub for poets. It’s very welcoming. Kay Harte [now retired from the café in the English Market which is run by her daughter, Rebecca] always regarded poets with the right amount of seriousness.”
Browne is also shortlisted for the Pigott Poetry Prize, worth €20,000, to be announced at Listowel Writers’ Week later this month. His parents must be proud.
- Dean Browne’s award will be announced at the Farmgate Café on Tuesday, May 12, at 6.30pm. He will be in conversation with UK poet Isabelle Baafi, moderated by Pat Cotter, on May 16 at the Cork Arts Theatre at 4.30pm.
- Kim Moore and Annemarie Ní Churreáin will talk about their work, moderated by Thomas McCarthy on May 16 at the Cork Arts Theatre at 10pm.
- Stephen de Búrca and Gerard Smyth will talk about poetry moderated by Thomas McCarthy on May 13 at the Cork Arts Theatre at 7pm.
- John F Deane and Martha Sprackland will be in discussion moderated by Patrick Holloway at the Cork Arts Theatre on May 14 at 8.30pm.
- Anthony Joseph and Patricia Smith will be in conversation with Isabelle Baafi at the Cork Arts Theatre on May 15 at 10pm.
- For more programme details, visit corkpoetryfest.net
