Laurence O’Dwyer is a poet from Clonmel, Co Tipperary, whose second collection, The Lighthouse Journal (Templar, 2020), was launched on Culture Night 2020 in cooperation with the Clonmel Junction Arts Festival and supported by Tipperary County Council Arts Office.

Stemming from time spent working on a lighthouse in Norway, The Lighthouse Journal explores the past, present and future of Litløy Fyr, a small island located six miles from the Norwegian coast and one hundred miles north of the Arctic Circle. This work is a celebration of a remote environment, as well as an ode to the comradery of manual labour as the poems document the restoration of a lighthouse that was built in 1912.

Working with the Swedish app developer and game-maker, Malte Olsson, The Lighthouse Journal has been adapted into an interactive book, featuring maps, photographs and videos, as well as narrated poems and original music. Donal Gallagher of Asylum Productions narrates the video and app.

The Lighthouse Journal has received a number of awards, including a Van Cleef & Arpels Special Fellowship in Poetry from the Bogliasco Foundation and the Yeovil Prize for Poetry. Selections from the collection have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize (US) and a Best of the Net Award (US). The work has also been translated into Norwegian and published in Norway’s oldest literary journal, Vinduet. Laurence O’Dwyer is currently working on his third collection of poetry, The Lofoten Journal.

The Lighthouse Journal is available from Templar Poetry from the link below

https://templarpoetry.com/collections/new-collections-pamphlets/products/the-lighthouse-journal

You can read more about the #CultureNight2020 interactive book project here:
https://www.culturenighttipperary.ie/culture-night-events/the-lighthouse-journal

Contact the Podcast: southtippartspodcast@gmail.com

Thanks for listening :)

This project has received funding under the Tipperary Creative Ireland Programme 2020