A Quarter of an Hour

Leanne O'Sullivan

From Shelf: "The Best Books by Women of the 21st Century." The Irish Times for International Women's Day 2022

Fourth collection by popular young Irish poet written in response to her husband's total loss of memory following a brain infection. More present to him him were birds and animals he believed he could see during his recovery. Winner of the inaugural Farmgate Cafe National Poetry Award 2019.

In 2013, Leanne O'Sullivan's husband Andrew suffered a severe infection in his brain. He spent just over three weeks in a coma, during which time his temperature soared to 42 degrees. When he finally woke it immediately became clear that his memory had been almost completely destroyed; he didn't even know his wife. More present and visual to him were the birds and wild animals that he believed he could see during his recovery: foxes, wildcats and herons - animals that seemed to be guiding him back. This became the starting point for poems that deal not simply with personal memory and recovery, but also the ways in which, collectively, even globally, we are trying (or not) to save entire species of plants and animals that we are now actually losing because of human activity. Nature has a voice that can speak back. This is a collection that celebrates the earth's intoxicating wildness as well as the richness and preciousness of human experience. Overall, we can rejoice in the fact that we're here, whatever the challenges. Winner of the inaugural Farmgate Cafe National Poetry Award 2019. Shortlisted for the Irish Times Poetry Now Award 2019 and for the Pigott Poetry Prize 2019 in association with Listowel Writers' Week.

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