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Highbrow Heretics is a new venture from Dave Lordan and Karl Parkinson, two leading Irish contemporary poets and internationally acclaimed alternative literary writers.
Highbrow Heretics focuses on in-depth coverage of serious subjects relevant to all, in various styles and in various forms, drawing on Karl and Dave's much-applauded work in poetry, story, essay, video, podcast, audio production, and radical pedagogy.
Subjects covered reflect the wide range of Karl & Dave's experiences, insights, and evolving interests, including deep-dives into Irish & International literary history and into the work & continuing relevance of great past writers, philosophers, and religious and political thinkers. Another big theme will be understanding and facing up to the critical condition of Planet Earth and the tremendous challenges and changes lying ahead.
If you do subscribe you'll receive for free the following by regular email
Dave’s Drops:
Dave's weekly post about whatever he fancies and in any form he feels like. Could be a 10000 word essay on Poetry and Irish Rebellion or a three minute video lesson on the Crafty Art of Storytelling. He could be channelling Proust or Mother Jones, or perverting Yeats while resurrecting dear O Leary from the grave. Could be anything atall really, knowing Dave.
Parkinson’s post
Karl’s weekly post about whatever he fancies Literature, Buddhism, life, art, books.
A poem, a video, a story, audio.
The Everlasting
Podcast on great literature or a philosophical debate, always offering fresh perspectives and insights on what the wisest humans that have ever lived - the 'long friends' as Dylan Thomas calls them - can still say to us to help us understand, face-up, live on in 2023.
Everything is free to all subscribers. However we are asking people who can afford it to become paid subscribers at a level of €7 a month or €77 euro a year. As an incentive to paid subscribers we will send you a hand written double-signed poem from our jointly composed collection, Back To Normal. These handwritten works are rare Irish Literary collectors Items and will accrue in value as time goes by.
About The Highbrow Heretics, Who Are We
Dave Lordan is the author of the poetry collections The Boy in the Ring (2007), which won the Patrick Kavanaugh Award, the Shine/Strong Award, and was shortlisted for the Irish Times poetry award, Invitation to a Sacrifice (2010), and Lost Tribe of the Wicklow Mountains(2014), all published by Salmon Poetry, and Medium(Front Line Press 2020). Wurmpress published his short story collection First Book of Frags in 2013. His play Jo Bangles was produced by the Eigse Riada company in 2010. In 2011 Lordan received the Ireland Chair of Poetry Bursary. He contributors to Arena, the arts program for RTE. His writing has been published widely, Including: The Stinging Fly, Granta, RTE Culture, Poetry, The 32, The Cry of the Poor, Dave is well known for his multimedia work in poetry film, videography and performance. Dave’s writing has been translated into many languages, including Italian, Spanish, Irish and Japanese.
Karl Parkinson is a writer from inner-city Dublin. The Grind his first short story collection was published in 2022 by Front Line Press. Sacred Symphony his third collection of poetry was published in 2020 by Culture Matters. His second collection of poetry, Butterflies of a Bad Summer, was published in 2016 by Salmon Poetry. His débutnovel, The Blocks, was published in 2016 by New Binary Press, and in Italian translation in 2022 by Battle Editions. In 2013 Wurmpress published his début poetry collection, Litany of the City and Other Poems. His work has appeared in the anthologies, New Planet Cabaret (New Island Press), If Ever You Go: A Map of Dublin in Poetry and Song (Dedalus Press), The deep Hearts Core: Irish poets revisit a touchstone poem (Dedalus Press), Even The Daybreak: 35 years of Salmon Poetry, The Children of the Nation: An Anthology of Working Peoples Poetry From Contemporary Ireland (Culture Matters), as well as in several journals and newspapers, including The Stinging Fly, The Irish Times, Penduline (USA), Dublin Inquirer and many more. Karl is one of Ireland’s most acclaimed live literature performers. His work has been broadcast on national TV and Radio. Karl’s writing has been translated into Italian, Galician, and German.
Back To Normal a jointly authored collection of poems by Dave and Karl, was published in 2022 by Front Line Press. It was a the awarded a Poetry Ireland poetry town bursary award. It was the latest collaboration from Lordan and Parkinson, continuing their acclaimed work together in performance and video poetry.
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