Product details
- ISBN 9781780377728
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 26 Feb 2026
- Publisher: Bloodaxe Books Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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Ethnology draws on the mystical cry for the dead of Cathy Galvin's Irish-speaking ancestors. Within an epic narrative she reclaims place, people and language, creating a bridge between our own times and a Connemara community on the margins of Europe. Drawing on classic forms within literary and oral traditions, Ethnology becomes a love song for Connemara, witness to vivid encounters: between the living and the dead and between the poets, folklorists and ethnologists who have written about the West of Ireland for their own agendas. In her first full-length book of poetry, fragility and strength are finely balanced, focused on the ruins of an island cottage built by her great-grandfather. Here, Cathy Galvin locates both mourning, humour and joy. The poems give a vivid, original voice to the tradition of keening, of honouring the loss of those we love.
Cathy Galvin's first book-length collection, Ethnology: a love poem for Connemara (Bloodaxe Books, 2026) follows three pamphlet sequences of poetry, Black & Blue (2014), Rough Translation (2016) and Walking The Coventry Ring Road with Lady Godiva (2019). She has been nominated for a variety of awards including the Ilkley Poetry Prize and Listowel Poetry Prize and is the recipient of a Hawthornden Fellowship, Heinrich Böll (Achill Island) residency and an Arts Council England DYCP award. Her work has appeared in publications including the Morning Star, The London Magazine, Poetry London, Agenda, High Windows and 14 Magazine. As a journalist, she has worked on staff as a senior editor for Newsweek and the Sunday Times and is a non-executive director of The Tablet. She was the editor of Red, an anthology of new writing published by Waterstones. As well as a poet and journalist, she has been a champion of other writers and writing, co-founding the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award and founding and directing The Word Factory short story organisation. With roots in Coventry and Connemara, she now lives near Bodmin Moor in Cornwall.
