The Well Review: a new poetry magazine

Turning over a new leaf

Every idiom has its idiot, and I'm a terrible fool for poetry pamphlets and similar booklets in the literary vein; or at least I was, until other demands on any little bit of surplus cash pushed further investment in what oft was thought… way down the domestic-budget charts. And this is no bad thing, since I probably have more than enough back issues, perfunctorily read, ready for rediscovery or not read at all, to see me out, supposing there ever is time again for reading.

The publication itself

Still though, there's a bit of a tug somewhere inside when a brand new literary journal is announced, so we were very happy indeed to be asked to supply wines for today's launch of The Well Review, a new journal named after the Sunday's Well area of Cork city. Poets and wine, I hear you cry—what a novel association! But I have it from very reliable sources that the fermented juice of the vine is not unknown at gatherings of the laureate, their acolytes and admirers. If you'd like to sip from their glass, as it were, editor Sarah Byrne astutely chose the Parnassian focus of Christophe Godet's Domaine de Marcé Touraine Sauvignon and the wine-dark red… wine from Domaine d'Arton. You'll find them for sale in the English Market and at our Marina premises, even if stock of the dark and delicious d'Arton blend is getting a bit low just now.

Hurtling down the slipway of poetry

I think it extremely unlikely that anyone's literally going to bash a bottle of anything off the stern of The Well Review to send it on its way, but if you'd like to be a part of the figurative heave that sets it on its maiden voyage, you'll have to hurry along to the Cork City Library for five pm today.

Literary review?

This is not the place, and neither you nor I have the time, for a critical appraisal of the new arrival by a wine merchant, for goodness' sake. There are hints, though, of what you can expect in this article from The Irish Times last week. Suffice it to say that the handsome publication pictured above is stuffed with good things, balances local with international poetry talent (including some vibrant (parallel) translations), and isn't too proud to scoff at the tradition of a propitiatory flaw in the carpet. We wish all the very best for the future to The Well Review and all who sail in her. The launch should prove a highlight of this year's Cork International Poetry Festival, and with a fair wind will carry this smart publication from its source in Sunday's Well far across the oceans.