Kevin Higgins’ ‘Sex and Death at Merlin Park Hospital’ poetry collection launching in June

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Sex and Death at Merlin Park Hospital, a new collection of poetry by local artist Kevin Higgins, is launching in Galway in June.

In his latest poetry collection, Higgins uses the blackest of humour to throw some occasionally bizarre but mercilessly honest light on the vexed, and often absurd, subject of his chronic illness.

The fifth full collection from Higgins, Sex and Death at Merlin Park Hospital gives readers everything they have come to expect from his work,

Steeped in the influence of Brecht, Swift, and Zbigniew Herbert, Sex and Death at Merlin Park Hospital includes the satire on the marriage of Tony and Cherie Blair which led to his suspension from the British Labour Party in 2016.

And in the final section, he presents us with a contemporary Dunciad which lacerates the poetry scene, both in Ireland and internationally, and takes out a couple of journalists along the way.

The collection is launching at yhe House Hotel, Spanish Parade, Galway on Friday, June 14 at 6pm and all are welcome.

The guest speaker on the night will be Molly Twomey, a student of Creative Writing in UCC, Winner of the Padraic Colum Poetry Prize and more who is now working on her debut collection.

Winner of the Padraic Colum Poetry Prize, Molly is a student of Creative Writing in UCC who has been published by The Irish Times, Headstuff, Windows Publications and elsewhere.

Praising Higgins’ work, the Irish Times has said “Readers might get the feeling that Kevin Higgins will say anything”, and they’re not wrong.