In advance of the 2013 program being released, we are delighted to announce that James Harpur has confirmed he will return to Strokestown next year.
A long-term friend of the festival, James Harpur has published five collections of poetry, all with Anvil Press. His most recent is the rich and metaphysically ranging Angels and Harvesters. His work has received a number of major awards, including the 2009 Michael Hartnett Award and the British National Poetry Competition.
‘Readings all today, ending with James Harpur and Ciaran Carson, both beautiful in quite different ways, Harpur melancholy, monastic, mystical, like prayers shaped out of despair with the hearsay of some small light just over the horizon.’– George Szirtes at the 2012 Strokestown International Poetry Festival