Incanting Leland Bardwell: Exhibition Launch

The Belfast Book Festival is honoured to mark the centenary of Irish poet and novelist Leland Bardwell. In our Ground Floor café you will find work by artists Alice Maher and Geraldine O’Reilly, handwritten work by Leland, and the sound collage “Dog-ear” (combining poetry spoken by Leland Bardwell with music) by composer, and the poet’s son, John McLachlan. 

The Exhibition has been curated by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, ​​John McLachlan and Natasha Cuddington.

Click here for more information about the exhibition. 

Leland Bardwell (1922-2016) was born in India and grew up in Leixlip, County Kildare. Living at times in Paris, London, Scotland, Kilkenny, Dublin and Monaghan, she immersed herself in literary and artistic circles in Soho, London, and Dublin, settling in Sligo in 1991. Remembered principally as a poet and novelist, her writing included stories and plays, film scripts, TV work, libretti and children’s plays and stories. Her published work comprises five poetry collections, five novels, a memoir, and a collection of short stories. A co-founder of Cyphers, one of the longest running poetry magazines in the world, she also was an early member of the Irish Writers' Co-operative in the mid-1970s, and a founding member of Aosdána, Ireland's state-sponsored academy for creative artists. Her centenary year, 2022, was marked with a festival, A Single Rose in Sligo, and the publication of three new books: a poetry volume My Name Suspended in the Air (Lepus) with commentaries from 33 writers, a prose collection The Heart and the Arrow (Doire Press) and her Collected Poems (Salmon Poetry).