Doire Press is delighted to announce the publication of BLOODROOT, a collection of poems by author Annemarie Ní Churreáin who is originally from Cloich Cheann Fhaola in northwest Donegal.

Launched in October 2017 to a packed house at the James Joyce Centre in Dublin, BLOODROOT went to reprint after only 10 days. Annemarie has recently embarked on a nationwide tour which brings her to Donegal in early March 2018.

“One of the topics that interests me most is the lives of women in rural Ireland. I’ve become very interested not only in the stories of women I know, but also in the stories of those women whose lives became public in the media in the ’80s and ’90s,” she explained.

“Some of the women referenced in my work include Ann Lovett, Joanne Hayes and Lavinia Kerwick. These are the stories I grew up with. ‘BLOODROOT’ is also a book that is written out of the experience of having had a grandmother who spent time in a Mother and Baby Home, and the entire book is dedicated to my foremothers.

“I would like people to read this book and remember the women in their own families whose lives were not always their own. I’d like the next generation of daughters to read BLOODROOT and reflect on the courage and bravery of those women who came before us.

“This book is a little piece of history, a love-note to the Irish warrior women who survived all kinds of social and political battles, and also the women who did not.”

Ní Churreáin’s work has recently featured in The Irish Times and was discussed by Olivia O’ Leary on the RTE Poetry Programme in Nov 2017.

The book has received widespread acclaim and been hailed by Rooney Prize winner Doireann Ní Ghríofa as “a work of muscle and grit, of vision and clarity, Bloodroot is truly exceptional. Among the strongest debut collections of the decade”.

The London Economic who were first to review the book described Ní Churreáin’s book as the book “the world, and particularly its women, have been waiting for”.

Ní Churreáin who is now Writer In Residence for County Kerry also specialises in creative writing work with people in the care of the state, including prisoners. In recent years she has been awarded literary fellowships by Akademie Schloss Solitude in Germany, Jack Kerouac House in Florida and Hawthornden Castle in Scotland.

In 2016, Ní Churreáin was presented with a Next Generation Artists Award by President Michael D. Higgins on behalf of the Arts Council. The BLOODROOT tour is set for the the U.S. and Europe in late 2018.

For information about the 2018 tour or readings, email creativeceardlann@gmail.com.

To order BLOODROOT visit www.doirepress.com