Laird hopes ’Fest will expand

Nick Laird takes the helm at PoetryFest, which begins this evening at the Irish Arts Center.

By Orla O’Sullivan

Ironically, the new curator of PoetryFest, the Irish Arts Center’s annual celebration of the form, is working on a book entitled, “The End of Poetry.”

Nick Laird, a poet and novelist from Northern Ireland, assumes the curator’s role beginning this evening. That’s on top of working on the aforementioned work of criticism – as part of a Guggenheim fellowship here – as well as a new novel, coming in August, from Penguin, “Modern Gods,” and a new anthology of favorite poems, coming out next year from Norton, “The Zoo of the New.”

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Laird told the Echo that he no plans for major changes to PoetryFest, which was cofounded eight years ago by Belinda McKeon and Aengus Woods.

“Belinda and Aengus did a great job with the poetry festival for many years, and I hope to continue and develop their work,” said the Cookstown, Co. Tyrone native. “The Irish Arts Center is due to move to larger premises in a year or two and I hope the festival will expand--like a gas--to fill it.”

Nor would Laird be drawn on the impolitic question of what he expected to be the highlight of the weekend’s events, which are free but for the opening Friday night session, “Favorite Poems,” as read by well-known figures. Among them is Laird’s wife, novelist and essayist Zadie Smith, whom he met when they were studying at Cambridge University. (Laird and Smith have two young children and split their time between New York and London.)

“Well, as with anything you're partially responsible for, the highlight will be when the last event has successfully finished, to be honest, but I'm looking forward to hearing all the readings,” he said. “To pick one out would be like picking your favorite child – while it might be true you have one, you shouldn't mention it in public.”

Laird himself has several poetry collections and two novels to his name. The first of the novels, “Utterly Monkey” (2005), was about a young lawyer’s efforts to escape the Troubles by settling in London.

There seemed to be a touch of escapism in evidence in early attempts to reach Laird, whose email address showed up as belonging the name of a 14th century writer.

The explanation? That Laird is apparently as down to earth as he is cerebral. “Ah, it's my gamer tag on Xbox,” he said, “and one day I linked it to my hotmail and haven't figured out to undo it.”

PoetryFest will run through Sunday at the Irish Arts Center (www.irishartscenter.org).

 

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