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
Eleanor Hooker
POET & WRITER
About
Eleanor Hooker is a poet and writer. She lives in North Tipperary with her husband Peter, they have two sons.
Of Ochre and Ash, her third poetry collection with the Dedalus Press, was launched October 8 2021 by author Donal Ryan. It was selected by poets/authors Kerry Hardie and Peter Sirr as winner of the Michael Hartnett Award 2022. Legion, her limited edition chapbook was published by Bonnefant Press, July 2021.
Eleanor is a recipient of the prestigious Markievicz Award 2021. Her chapbook for this award, Where Memory Lies, will be published by Bonnefant Press in 2023.
Eleanor's second poetry collection,
A Tug of Blue (Dedalus Press) was published October 2016. In 2013 her debut, The Shadow Owner's Companion (Dedalus Press) was shortlisted for the Strong/Shine Award for Best First Irish collection.
Eleanor is a PhD candidate at the University of Limerick. She holds an MPhil (Distinction) in Creative Writing from Trinity College Dublin, an MA in Cultural History (Hons) University of Northumbria, a BA (Hons 1st), Open University. In October 2018 Eleanor was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London.
Eleanor was a founding member of the Dromineer Literary Festival, and was Programme Curator 2004 -2017. She is a helm and Press Officer for the Lough Derg RNLI Lifeboat. She began her career as a nurse and midwife.
Eleanor's profile and poems are featured on the Irish page of the Poetry International website.
Read More
A selection of Eleanor's poems have been added to the UCD Library Special Collections, as part of the of the Irish Poetry Reading Archive. Listen & Watch Here
Eleanor's poetry has been published in Ireland and internationally: in the UK; USA; Germany; Poland; Romania; India; Hungary and Australia and in literary journals including: Poetry Ireland Review; Poetry Review, POETRY magazine; PN Review, AGENDA, The Stinging Fly, Winter Papers, Banshee, The Cherry Tree, The Moth, The Irish Times, The Irish Examiner, Crannóg, POEM: International English Language Quarterly, Cyphers and The Cormorant.
Online, her poems have been published at The Blue Nib; Southword; New Dublin Press; And Other Poems; Poethead; Ink Sweat and Tears; The Ofi Press;The Pickled Body and broadcast on RTÉ Radio One.
Eleanor has read at literary events in Ireland; USA (Pittsburgh, Washington); India (Mumbai International Literary Festival); Hungary (Budapest) and the Emirates Airlines Fesitval of Literature (Dubai).
At the invitation of Professor Michael Thomas, MFA, Associate Dean of Studies and Director of the Visiting Writers Series, Monmouth University, New Jersey, USA, Eleanor read as part of the Visiting Writer Series, March 2018.
Contact
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