AFRIC MCGLINCHEY
Events
Tied to the Wind
Tied to the Wind portrays a young girl’s attempts to tether herself to a life that keeps becoming unfixed, each time her family moves from Ireland to Southern Africa and back again. Her nomadic childhood triggers a sense of destabilisation, exacerbated by alcoholism, racism, war and the conflicts of complicit colonial privilege. Interwoven into the narrative are the puzzle pieces of a fateful decision to undertake a skydive, despite her fear of heights. These are the pieces with which to assemble a self.
Invisible Insane
Invisible Insane is Google Translate’s Japanese version of the English proverb: ‘out of sight, out of mind’. The poems in this surrealist chapbook challenge the reader with a storm of multiple possible interpretations, intentionally thwarting the notion of solidity. Everything is fluid, and elements of the world merge in one vast confluence. But there is energy and euphoria too: ‘loose-wristed, star-fired, brainless / with excitement. Cha.’ While these poems primarily evoke eco-concerns and a sense of destabilisation, they also celebrate the wonderment of life.
Ghost of the Fisher Cat
In her second collection, Afric McGlinchey dives into a ‘river of familiars’, inspired by the Parisian urban myth of a black cat and its apothecary owner. Borders between fantasy and the real world blur as characters and relationships are evoked in lyrics that veer from natural to political to perceptual disturbances, from the ghostly to the hallucinatory. Some characters are frozen in inaction, while others overcome seemingly impossible odds. Across a time-space continuum, what unifies the collection is the power of the imagination and will, to transcend our circumstances, to answer the haunting imperatives of the heart.
For book review click here.
The lucky star of hidden things
Afric’s début collection explore her African memories and traces the nomadic path of her upbringing. A number of the poems consider relationships where, behind love and passion, there lurks a pursuing shadow of doubt. These are the narratives of an outsider, where symbolic imagery hides as much as it reveals.
This collection has been translated into Italian by Lorenzo Mari and published by L’Arcolaio.