'Duelling Banjo Poets’ in Woodbine, Thursday night

A double poetry launch in Woodbine Books this coming Thursday will be a two-hander event with the authors reading alternately from their works in what is referred to as a 'duelling banjos' style, writes Brian Byrne.

That's because while the books by Arnie Yasinski and Alison Hackett respectively both come out of digging into different personal experiences they are quite complementarily expressed.

Yasinski's It’s Okay, He’s American and Hackett's Sentient are anthologies both connected by themes including fathers, teachers, drink, religion and politics.

They call themselves the Duelling Banjo Poets in reference to the bluegrass instrumental composed in 1954 by 'Guitar Boogie' Smith featuring two banjos alternately riffing against each other. It became popular after a version in the soundtrack of the 1972 movie Deliverance. That actually had a guitar and a banjo 'feuding' with each other, and perhaps is appropriate for the two poet authors melding their different experiences into a single performance.

The books are produced by Twenty First Century Renaissance, an independent publishing house founded by Alison Hackett. She has previously published The Visual Time Traveller: 500 Years of History Art & Science, which is also an exhibition and talk about 100 years of unique designs.

Her first poetry anthology, Crabbing (2017), came out of a self-exploration of the buried consequences four decades after the death of her mother when Alison was a child in boarding school.

Like his publisher, Arnie Yasinski didn't start writing poetry until later in life, adding painting soon afterwards with evening classes at the Rhode Island School of Design where he was an administrator. Exploring his Polish family background, and how he is viewed as an American living in Ireland, are among the themes of his new collection.

Poetry is arguably the most personal and revealing form of writing. It should be an interesting night at Woodbine Books.

Kicks off at 7pm, Thursday 2 March. 

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