Broadcasts
Broadcasts
Broadcasts
"There are chapbooks, and there are chapbooks. And then there is Legion by Eleanor Hooker.
Letterset by hand, crafted in the old style, these 8 poems sing of honeybees and intone the "trembling water of the lake". Eleanor's work is evocative as always, teeming with the profusion of nature and its gifts and the people who interact with these, in good ways and bad. Echoes of Yeats's "bee-loud glade" come to mind, not just because of the theme but for the texture of the language too.
But Eleanor's words focus on the feminine, weaving images like spells cast over the page, words to harness the energy of the natural world that most of us don't understand but that lead the poet "to wheedle with words".
The honeybee with all its associations - productivity, sweet honey, its sting, the drone reproducing only to die - is a charming metaphor for the many dichotomies of life as well as the greed that abounds in society, where the bee-elect is "trapped in the syrup of its own success".
A beautiful artefact made by Hans van Eijk of Bonnefant Press, Maastricht, Holland, with frontispiece by Jeanie Tomanek."
Anamaría Crowe Serrano - poet and author
"There are chapbooks, and there are chapbooks. And then there is Legion by Eleanor Hooker.
Letterset by hand, crafted in the old style, these 8 poems sing of honeybees and intone the "trembling water of the lake". Eleanor's work is evocative as always, teeming with the profusion of nature and its gifts and the people who interact with these, in good ways and bad. Echoes of Yeats's "bee-loud glade" come to mind, not just because of the theme but for the texture of the language too.
But Eleanor's words focus on the feminine, weaving images like spells cast over the page, words to harness the energy of the natural world that most of us don't understand but that lead the poet "to wheedle with words".
The honeybee with all its associations - productivity, sweet honey, its sting, the drone reproducing only to die - is a charming metaphor for the many dichotomies of life as well as the greed that abounds in society, where the bee-elect is "trapped in the syrup of its own success".
A beautiful artefact made by Hans van Eijk of Bonnefant Press, Maastricht, Holland, with frontispiece by Jeanie Tomanek."
Anamaría Crowe Serrano - poet and author
Published Prose/Fiction
Awards/Commendations
Prose
Review of Lorna Siggins book Search and Rescue – True Stories of Irish Air-Sea Rescues and the Loss of R116 (Merrion Press) for The Irish Times Read More
Essay 'Reflections on Lough Derg' RTÉ Lyric Feature, LyricFM Read More
Poetry Masterclass - 'Removing the Scaffolding' Skylight 47 literary journal Read More
Essay 'A Poet Helms the Lifeboat' New Hibernia Review, Autumn/Fómhar 2021 Read More
Review of John Glendays' Selected Poems (Picador) in Verseville Read More
Flash Memoir, Alice in Wonderland Syndrome published in A Page from My Life: A Selection of Stories from Ray D’Arcy Show Listeners (Harper Collins). Read More
In Behind the Poem - finding traces, Poetry Review, Poetry Society. Read More
Sing against the storm: 10 years of The Moth - The directors and 10 contributors reflect on one of Ireland’s best literary magazines in the Irish Times Read More
Flash fiction The Man in Bed Eight is published in the Irish Times. With thanks to Martin Doyle, Books Editor at the paper Read More
Contributor to 'Valentine’s Day: Impress them with these love poems', Irish Times Read More
Review of Graham Allen's The Madhouse System (New Binary Press) and Alvy Carragher's
Falling in love with broken things (Salmon Poetry)online at The Stinging Fly website Read More
Flash Fiction Sage, published in Issue 1 of Banshee Read More
Short Story Digging Holes published in The Woven Tale Press Read More
Flash fiction The Lesson published in Bare Fiction literary journal Read More
Reading List: Poetry magazine, Poetry Foundation Read More
Review of Robin Robertson’s poetry collection ‘Hill of Doors’ in the Irish Times Read More
Account of my visit to the US Library of Congress to meet and listen to two US poet laureates, Charles Wright and Charles Simic in conversation with the editor of Poetry magazine, Don Share Read More
2018 Shortlisted in the Fish Flash Fiction Competition 2018
2016 Awarded 1st Prize in the Bare Fiction, Flash Fiction competition for 'The Lesson'. Judge Richard Skinner. Read More
2015 Commended in the Bare Fiction Flash, Fiction competition for 'Sage'. Judge Amanda Readman.
2012 Winner 10 word Short Story Competition by @shortstoryday, as part of National Short Story Day.
2011 Winner Frank X Buckley Flash Short Story competition, Irish Writers' Centre
2011 Joint 2nd Prize Winner William Trevor/Elizabeth Bowen International Short Story competition
2009/10 ‘Idioms’ Shortlisted Fish Publishing One-Page Story Prize
2009/10 ‘Digging Holes’ Shortlisted Fish Publishing Short Story Prize