Novel way making poetry mainstream
SLIGO poet Trevor Conway, has come up with an innovative way to promote poetry.
He is handing out booklets of his poems in cafes and pubs for people to sit back, relax and indulge in his poetry.
Trevor said: “There’s a need for poetry to be more prominent in society.”
So he has printed and distributed free samples from his book, Evidence of Freewheeling, published last year.
“There’s been a good response so far. I’ve had a few people contact me though my website and the publisher has received queries since I gave out the samples.”
He agrees that technology has changed a lot over the years, pointing out that we live in a fast age, and need to slow down.
Trevor said he fears that poetry has a poor image among the general population and that needs to be changed.
“A lot of people think it’s old- fashioned, boring and pretentious.
“As usual, the stereotype describes only a very small minority of the whole.
“People are missing out on a lot. There are loads of edgy poets out there who shatter that image.
“Poets like Sarah Clancy and Adam White, who writes brilliantly about stuff like manual labour”.
Trevor added more people would turn up at poetry readings to get more insight and flavour for what it’s all about.
Last June, he read at the Belfast Book Festival, and spoke about the great atmosphere and talent there is around.
He said he thinks poets need to be more ambitious. “Hundreds of years ago, poetry and theatre were the big events of the day. Why can’t we get some of that back?”
Far from the clichéd image of an idle poet staring out a window, Trevor also provides an editing service and classes for writers, as well as editing for businesses. He’s currently working on his second poetry collection and a GAA novel.
His first book, Evidence of Freewheeling, is available at salmonpoetry. com.
His poetry samples are currently in coffee shops and bars around Galway, and they’ll be available in Sligo soon.
To check out Trevor’s writing and blogs, visit http:// trevorconway. weebly. com