The latest PN Review contains an interesting interview with Peter McDonald conducted by Fran Brearton. It contains quite a lot about McDonald's early formation which I didn't know.  I've also got a new poem in the issue: 'Alexandra One'.

Some delay to the publication of Poetry and Privacy. But I've had proofs now and the publisher is just creating the index. So it should be out in a few weeks - fingers crossed!

First sight of new book

 A listing for Poetry and Privacy, my new book, appears on the W. H. Smith website.

Durcan and Kennelly

The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish Poetry appears now in the OUP catalogue. I've got an essay in it - there are 40 contributors! - which assesses Paul Durcan and Brendan Kennelly. Both of these poets have been very popular, of course, and they have had some academic attention. In his time Kennelly has probably been over-rated, but I'm not sure Durcan has been fairly treated (at least by academia.)

New poems

I've got some new poems up at Digital Behemoth.

Review of Liddy 'Selected'

Over on his blog, Michael Begnal, the editor of Honeysuckle, Honeyjuice, has written a positive review of Liddy's Selected Poems.

Irish Championships 2011

As it happened, I managed to exceed my targeted performance in the Irish Chess Championship. I finished in second place, scored 7/9, and had a rating performance of 2397.

In the penultimate round, I was a little unlucky, when, in travelling to the venue, I was delayed by a double accident on the M50. This meant I got to the venue 35 minutes late and I didn't manage to win the game. I doubt it would have made any difference to the overall result, though, as Stephen Brady was simply playing too well.

I did particularly well with the Black pieces, scoring 4/4 (following 4/5 with Black last year). I even got away with playing the Nimzo-Indian, an opening I hadn't ventured for over twenty years.