<p>Poetry. Irish émigré poet Mairéad Byrne's provocative and unhinged YOU HAVE TO LAUGH showcases, for the first time in one volume, more than twenty years of groundbreaking poetry that ranges from taut lyrics, sustained narratives, prose and occasional poems, to high-wired sound texts. Byrne's brash energy, wry quips, and engaged bittersweet critiques of the overinflated language of consumerism and world-weariness elevate these poems from the laugh-out-loud funny toward understated pathos. The way the work integrates high cultural references with spoken-word intensity, while the syntax swerves with wildly varied diction, is sure to attract a wide audience even as it undermines easy categorization.</p>

You Have to Laugh: New + Selected Poems

Literature & Fiction

Byrne, Mairéad

Poetry

Barrow Street Press

Poetry. "Mairead Byrne's poems are moving microcosms in which a keen power of observation and playful imagination fuse with the minutiae of daily life to create small missives of quirky and insightful documentation. Her source material includes everything from the weather to credit card bills to news reports to human body parts to animal pelts and all of these seemingly disparate details amass into a kind of living, breathing envelope that holds the marrow of existence itself in all its harsh reality, weird surreality, absurdity, fragility, and occasional beauty. Often funny and sometimes sobering, Byrne's work exposes the difficult-to-reconcile distractions, detritus, and rubble that surround us from all sides, but also culls glowing artifacts from such debris"--Juliet Cook.

The Best of (What's Left of) Heaven

Publishing Genius Press

Poetry. "TALK POETRY is so hot. High bandwidth textblocks buzz with wonderful conversations. Verbal quadrats frame teeming diversifications. It's just gorgeous...Don't let this one slip through your fingers. Unmissable"--Randolph Healy.

Talk Poetry

History & Criticism

Miami University Press

<p>The work of German photographer Louisa Marie Summer is driven by her interest in discovering the inner workings of other people's lives. She is eager to look at what is beyond the surface and questions with her camera what she sees. Louisa's photographs share her experience with Jennifer, a young second-generation Puerto Rican woman, whom one day Louisa approached in South Providence. Jennifer lives with her native American partner and their four children in a run-down three-bedroom apartment at or near the lower end of the socio-economic ladder. South Providence is an urban neighborhood with a large African-American and Hispanic population, high unemployment and crime rates, and where many families live well below the poverty line. Over time Louisa and the family developed a close relationship based on mutual understanding, respect, and trust. Accordingly, Louisa’s photographs, captured over a year, provide an intimate view into the daily life of Jennifer's family. They illustrate how a 26 year old mother, in spite of difficult living conditions, poverty, and illness, manages to maintain optimistic while thoroughly caring for her children. Louisa's photographs show a quality of great empathy, but by no means does Louisa expose weakness or defect but allows each of her subjects dignity and personal impact.</p>

Jennifer's Family

Arts & Photography

Individual Artists

Schilt Pub

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Books by Byrne, Mairéad