Eat the Storms, the poetry podcast, hosted and produced by Dublin based poet Damien B. Donnelly, began two years ago in the middle of a full lockdown. At the time, it was the answer to the question of how to connect with a community when the point of our new lives was to have no connection at all. Two years later, with the podcast now available on more than 12 platforms, sharing the voices of over 350 international guests spread out over 5 seasons, it’s the perfect time to return poetry to the page.
In its inaugural issue, The Storms, a new printed journal of poetry, prose and visual art, made in Ireland with international contributors, explores not only the global fears of recent years but also the intimate struggles in dealing with the complexities of our own paths under the theme Eat the Storms. Across the 106 pages of the journal, poets, prose writers and visual artists express the hope amid the howls, the possibility between the precipitation and the universal vulnerability that is shared, despite how much we try to break each other down. As Doreen Duffy perfectly expresses in her poem
‘we’ll turn and look towards the line that divides the sea and sky and then we will remember… this is only for a while.’
With work from first-time published writers to award winning poets and established artists, The Storms journal, like its predecessor Eat the Storms, the poetry podcast, continues to build connections across not only communities and continents but also uniting various forms of creative expression.
The journal was made possible thanks to an Agility Award given to Damien B Donnelly from the Arts Council, Ireland and an Artist Support Scheme from the Fingal County Council/Fingal Arts.
The inaugural issue was launched on 21st August, on the steps of the Casino, in Marino, Dublin, an 18th century neoclassical building celebrating the arts and culture, with thanks to the Office of Public Works as part of their Heritage Week celebrations. The journal is available online from https://eatthestorms.com/2022/08/18/the-storms-inaugural-issue/ and is currently available in Charlie Byrne’s in Galway, Books Upstairs and The Winding Stair Bookshop in Dublin and The Secret Bookshelf in Carrickfergus.
Editor-in-chief Damien B Donnelly is the Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize nominated author of Eat the Storms, a poetry pamphlet listed on the Poetry Book Society Winter List 2020/21, a Stickleback micro-collection and the co-author of the conversational pamphlet In the Jitterfritz of Neon. His first full collection Enough! was published on 29th August 2022 by The Hedgehog Poetry Press. Inaugural issue sub-editor Gaynor Kane is the author of Circling the Sun, Memory Forest, Venus in Pink Marble and her new pamphlet, Eight Types of Love, was published by The Hedgehog Poetry Press on 30th July.
The international launch of The Storms and its inaugural issue will take place online, via zoom, on 10th September at 7pm GMT with free tickets available at Eventbrite https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/the-storms-journal-zoom-launch-tickets-408477135107 and a special episode of the poetry podcast Eat the Storms will celebrate the launch of the journal on Saturday 24th September from 5pm on most podcast platforms.
Submissions for Issue two will open at the end of September with a release date planned for the end of 2022. Full details will be available closer to the time at – eatthestorms.com/the-storms-a-journal-of-poetry-prose-and-visual-art/
