Katie Donovan: May Swim

Katie Donovan reads and introduces six poems from May Swim (2024), her sixth book of poetry from Bloodaxe. By turns lyrical and sardonic, this timely collection is characteristically watery – candid and uncompromising in its refusal to inhabit the safer reaches of the shore. Themes of loss, widowhood and ageing co-exist with observations of her wild garden and its inhabitants, including a mangey fox she helps to survive.

Small acts of salvage are often all that is possible, such as the permission given during the Covid-19 pandemic to go 2km from home. This allowed Donovan to swim at White Rock, her local beach, thus staying afloat through the fear of that brutal time and what came next – the death of her mother. In some of these poems the comforting delusion of rescue is highlighted as a flawed but human necessity. Other poems give voice to the remorse that is the haunting of a failed rescue.

Neil Astley filmed Katie Donovan reading from her new collection at her home in Dalkey, Dublin, in April 2024 ahead of the book’s publication in May 2024. The poems she reads are ‘Two Women, One Grave’, ‘Deluge’, ‘May Swim’, ‘The Seal’, ‘Stories’ and ‘Home to Vote’. Separate videos are available of Katie Donovan reading from her earlier books, Rootling (https://youtu.be/UsaPJYlAo2M) and Off Duty (https://youtu.be/519CWidNS8I).

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