“AS NASTY a man as he is poor as a 'poet'” was what John McTernan, a former advisor to Tony Blair called Kevin Higgins - but then, that's Blairites for you. Diarmaid Ferriter though was on the mark, when he described the Galwegian as “Ireland’s accomplished political poet and satirist".
Higgins, who delights in tormenting the Blairite faction of the British Labour Party and satirising Official Ireland's pomposity and obsequiousness, is about to launch - and he is a music fan, so he won't mind me describing it thus - his 'Greatest Hits with additional bonus tracks'.
Song of Songs 2.0 – New & Selected Poems by Kevin Higgins, published by Salmon Poetry, will be launched by Dr Philip Coleman of Trinity College Dublin, at The House Hotel, Spanish Parade, on Monday April 24 at 7.30pm, as part of the Cúirt International Festival of Literature.
Kevin Higgins is co-organiser of Over The Edge literary events and teaches writing workshops at Galway Arts Centre and GTI. He is the author of the poetry collections The Boy With No Face (2005 ), Time Gentlemen, Please (2008 ), Frightening New Furniture (2010 ), and The Ghost In The Lobby (2014 ), as well as 2016 – The Selected Satires of Kevin Higgins, and a book of essays and reviews, Mentioning The War (2012 ).
The Stinging Fly called him, “likely the mostly widely read living poet in Ireland”; The Irish Times has praised his poetry's "swiftness of wit, its tone of buoyant contrarianism and jubilant disappointment”; Clare Daly TD called him, "one of the lead poets of his generation in Ireland at this stage"; while Culture Matters said he writes "political poetry of the highest order". All are welcome to the launch.
In the meantime, listen to a Galway Advertiser Podcast with Kevin:
