Poetry, Prose & Drama

Celebrating thirty years of The Ark, Dream Big: New Plays from The Ark 2019–2025 brings together five plays commissioned by Ireland’s only children’s cultural centre

Beginning a generation before Hekate, Styx sings the story of the goddess of the underworld river that bears her name…The firstborn child of Titans, Styx is revered as the first of her kind – until she is eclipsed and forgotten amid her scores of siblings, the Oceanids and the Potamoi. 

One of America’s best loved poets, Mary Oliver is also among nature’s most brilliant and devoted observers, whose words ask us to live with our eyes open wider. This luminous selection brings together her best-known works from across her career. . .

We all need to sit and rest from time to time. To think, ponder, hope, pray.

Over the years, Alice Taylor has written down many of these moments of contemplation so she can revisit them over and over again, and now she is sharing them with her dear readers. 

Jiving with Wasps is a new retrospective from Rita Ann Higgins drawing on a dozen books of poetry published over four decades, from Goddess on the Mervue Bus (1986) to The Long Weekend (2024), in addition to new poems appearing here for the first time.

Losing someone casts us adrift in a lonely sea of grief, one that can be hard to navigate and is frequently overwhelming. Donna's wise words help us feel less alone on even the hardest of days, and bring comfort and understanding. 

A collection of poems of revolution and dreams and visions of freedom and nationhood for Ireland - focusing on before, during and after the 1916 Rising.

Dánfhocail: Irish Epigrams in Verse is the first ever translation of the concise, poetic commentaries found throughout Irish manuscript and oral traditions, originally compiled by T.F. O’Rahilly.

365 poems celebrating nature and the changing seasons. This is the perfect bedside companion for any nature or poetry fan, featuring famous odes from big-name poets alongside unsung poems from less-well-known writers.

A propulsive, electrifying and enraging retelling in verse of the life of Greek goddess Hekate, child of war turned all-powerful goddess of witchcraft and necromancy, by internationally bestselling poet Nikita Gill.

How one visionary inspired 200 years of art, poetry, and protest. Weaving between the historical, cultural and personal, award-winning author Philip Hoare reveals a web of creative minds and artistic iconoclasts fired with the wild and revolutionary genius of William Blake.

A poetry lover, a curator of joy and a wise woman with a deep sense of compassion, Dearbhla Mescal has inspired thousands online to slow down, savour the small moments and rediscover the beauty in everyday life.

Whether walking along the canals of Venice or teaching English to Iranian pilots, interviewing blood diamond dealers or reading Great Expectations, Donna Leon has found inspiration in the strangest of places.

First ever standalone edition of one of J.R.R. Tolkien’s most important poetic dramas, that explores timely themes such as the nature of heroism and chivalry during war, and which features unpublished and never-before-seen texts and drafts. 

An invigorating pair of essays exploring exile, language and national identity from one of Europe's most celebrated literary stars, the author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being. 

Novelist, scientist, courtier, poet - Goethe's genius spanned disciplines in his lifetime, and has spanned the centuries since his death. Bringing together the stunning lyric poetry of the author of Faust, this fresh translation also gives us Goethe's life from childhood to old age, captured in his verse.

This is the long-awaited, definitive edition of Seamus Heaney's poetry. It encompasses all the poems Heaney published in his lifetime as well as the small number that appeared after his death . . .