Boy Drinkers, Terence Winch's latest collection of poems, from Hanging Loose Press (click & scroll down)

PUBLISHER'S PRESS RELEASE:

The latest work from this acclaimed poet, musician, and fiction writer reaches down to the roots of the contemporary Irish-American experience. In Boy Drinkers, Terence Winch---with singular poignancy, wit, and clarity---draws on his upbringing in the Bronx in the 1950s and '60s to bring to life an Irish Catholic world of guilt and choice, debt and legacy, and the betrayals of belief that shake the self to the core.

Winner of the American Book Award for his poetry collection Irish Musicians/American Friends and of the Columbia Book Award for The Great Indoors, and grant recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fund for Poetry, and the Maryland State Arts Commission, Terence Winch is recognized as a significant presence in the literary community. Winch---also known as a songwriter with his celebrated band, Celtic Thunder---has been featured on NPR's "All Things Considered" and numerous times on Garrison Keillor's "Writer's Almanac."

Praise for Boy Drinkers

Here is a new look at the Irish diaspora, where the sound of glasses clinking is as familiar as the smell of incense at a Catholic Mass, where Terence Winch prays, "If the spirit has its own life, let the noises /it makes be as silent as the multiplication / and subtraction of time, and not / the rattle of a cough in the dark." Boy Drinkers looks with sober eyes at the people, tragedies, and traditions that shaped any of us who grew up in a community where alcohol and God were equally able to bring us to our knees. With his musician's ear and Irishman's humor, Terence Winch pokes fun at the Holy, makes sacred the mundane, and redefines the meaning of "grace." ---Meg Kearney

Terry Winch writes the kind of poems that make you want to kick back and listen, and say to hell with what you were supposed to be doing. These vignettes of growing up Irish Catholic in New York City during the '50s and '60s evoke a world that seems long gone, in many ways with good reason. In a voice that manages to be understated, precise, and casual all at once, Winch exposes us to a set of characters struggling with a world that's changing too fast not only for them, but for anyone. These are poems you'll remember. Clear-eyed, unsentimental, and hilarious, they'll also break your heart. ---Mark Wallace

Reviews of Boy Drinkers

• "In Boy Drinkers, Terence Winch continues his compelling record of a time, a place, and a people.... The remarkable thing about Winch's Irish-American writing is that it is radically local and inductive in the sense that Charles Olson preached localism. ...An Irish-American classic." ---Jack Morgan, The Irish Literary Supplement

• "These witty, narrative poems are light, brave particles of truth." ---John Jacob, Rain Taxi
  

• "Terence Winch is a poet and founding member of Celtic Thunder, the storied Irish music group. Boy Drinkers is his mesmerizing new collection of autobiographical poems about growing up Irish-American in the Bronx."---Dylan Foley, The Newark Star-Ledger
  

• "Winch's nostalgic new collection about growing up Irish Catholic in New York in the 1950s and 1960s...packs the undeniable punch of memories dragged up and pried away from whatever might have obscured them from view." ---Kevin Nance, Booklist
  

• "Winch seamlessly weaves comedy and tragedy, the personal or conversational and the highly lyrical.... What one discovers is a universality of feeling: the pleasure of being admitted to a world of strangers who speak your language."---Anna Ziegler, Smartish Pace magazine.

  To order Boy Drinkers, click on CONTACT.

  
  
  

  Terence Winch's last book is That Special Place: New World Irish Stories, an acclaimed collection of non-fiction stories about Irish music and the musicians who make it, published by Hanging Loose Press.
  

  About That Special Place: New World Irish Stories

• "You can see the sights, taste the air, hear the sounds, and smell the atmosphere (no matter how smoky and boozy) in all his stories. A delightful read!" ---Dirty Linen magazine
  

• "In That Special Place, Terry Winch reminds us again that he is the voice of Irish America." ---George O'Brien
  

• "Terence Winch's work is a joy to read. ...He brings a fiction writer's eye for epiphany to his nonfictional storytelling.... Winch's book is full of the soul's stories, and it will occupy that special place in readers' own memories." ---Earle Hitchner, The Irish Echo
  

• "The narratives...focus on the wild, the profane, and the often simply crazy world of the itinerant performer and are often hilarious. That Special Place represents...a vital contribution to Irish American writing." ---Eamonn Wall, The Irish Literary Supplement
  

• "A small but powerful collection of stories and lyrics.... The author's compassion for all his characters shines..., as well as his ability to observe and unthread the smallest nuance of human word, emotion, or behavior. Perhaps it's his musician's ability to tie the strings of life together without missing a beat." ---Kathleen Cain, The Bloomsbury Review

  
  

  
  

  PERFORMANCES:

  On Friday night, February 20, 2009, at 8:00 pm, Narrowbacks performed in concert as part of the annual Irish Evening sponsored by the Howard County Poetry and Literature Society (Hocopolitso). Acclaimed writer Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes, read from his work before the Narrowbacks concert. The band's line-up included All-Ireland fiddle champion Brendan Mulvihill; singer Eileen Korn; Jesse Winch on bodhran, bouzouki,and guitar; Terry Winch on button accordion; and Linda Hickman on flute, whistle, and vocals. Championship step-dancers from the Culkin School of Irish Dance performed as part of the show. See Hocopolitso's site for details. Earlier that same day, Terence Winch interviewed Frank McCourt for the cable tv show "The Writing Life," which will air in the near future.

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  in front: Terry Winch, Brendan Mulvihill, Jesse Winch; in back: Linda Hickman, Eileen Korn

  
  Narrowbacks/CELTIC THUNDER 1981 (Terry Winch, Jesse Winch, Dominick Murray, Linda Hickman, and Tony DeMarco) returned to the Baltimore Irish Festival on Saturday, September 13, 2008. See the Festival site for details.

  Visit the Irish Inn at Glen Echo, Maryland, every Monday night to hear great music (in a relaxed, session-like setting) from the Irish Inn Mates---Jesse Winch, Betsy O'Malley, Tina Eck, and Mitch Fanning, with occasional guests, including Terence Winch. From about 7 pm until 10 pm. See the Irish Inn's site for details.

  READINGS:

  On 12 June 2009, Terence Winch took part in a group reading sponsored by Smartish Pace magazine at Artomatic in Washington, DC. To watch a video of his reading, go to the SP site.

  Terence Winch & Michael Lally read together in New York on January 8, 2009, in a series featuring prose work by poets called Prose Pros. Hosted by Elinor Nauen and Martha King, the readings take place in the comfortable backroom Lounge of The Telephone Bar & Grill, 149 Second Avenue, btw 9th & 10th Streets For more information on the series, visit Elinor's site.

  On August 23, 2008, Garrison Keillor read "Comfort," the lead-off poem in Boy Drinkers, on his radio program, "The Writer's Almanac." For information, visit the program's site. For Keillor's previous readings of poems by Terence Winch, go to the program's archive.

  Terence Winch & Michael Lally read together at the famous KGB Bar in Manhattan on Monday night, October 6, 2008. For a review of the reading, plus photos, visit The Best American Poetry site.

  Recent PUBLICATIONS:

  On a recent post, Mark Wallace provides a generous introduction to Terence Winch's work. Go to Mark's blog for the full text.

  Terence Winch was a guest blogger on the Best American Poetry blog for a week, from Sunday, July 27, to Saturday, August 2, 2008. Check out the BAP blog.

  A new anthology of short stories by Washington writers has just been published by Paycock Press in DC. It's called Stress City: A Big Fat Book of Fiction by Fifty DC Guys, and includes a story by Terence Winch called "The Treatment." Visit the press's site for more information.

  The new issue of Coconut is now out, with several poems by Terence Winch from his series Lit from Below, a work in progress. Visit the journal for a look.

  The Chicago-based Irish band Bohola recently released its new Christmas album, called Bo-ho-ho-hola (tracks can be downloaded for 99 cents each/ the CD is also now availabe). Track 3 includes their version of Terence Winch's Christmas poem "Celebration" from Boy Drinkers. You can find it through Amazon and other web sources.

  Kim Roberts, editor of the Beltway Poetry Quarterly , appeared recently on the Happy Booker blog, naming her 5 top poetry books of 2007, a list that includes Boy Drinkers. Check out Kim's list.

  Poetry Daily, the popular website, has chosen "Comfort," the lead-off poem in Boy Drinkers, as the featured poem for Friday, Oct. 26. Check out Poetry Daily.

  Boy Drinkers, Terence Winch's latest book of poems, is now available from Hanging Loose Press. See Hanging Loose's 2007 titles.

  The Innisfree Poetry Journal has introduced a new feature called "A Closer Look," which focuses on the work of one writer. The inaugural installment offers a selection of work by Terence Winch. See the Innisfree site.

  Read Anna Ziegler's review of Boy Drinkers in Smartish Pace magazine.

  See Michael Lally's inimitable blog for his generous remarks on Terence Winch's songs: Lally's Alley.

  Saints of Hysteria: A Half-Century of Collaborative American Poetry has just been published by Soft Skull Press. It includes a poem called "Strategy" written in 1981 by Terence Winch and Bernard Welt. See the Soft Skull site.

  Three poems by Terence Winch are included in Inertia, an on-line magazine guest-edited by Jordan Smith.

  Two poems from Terence Winch's series Lit from Below are included in a recent issue of Word for Word: A Journal of New Writing.

  Five more from Lit from Below are included in the updated DC Poetry Anthology.

  Check out "Jennifer Connelly Sestina" on McSweeney's website.

  Terence Winch's poem "Mysteries" is included in The Oxford Book of American Poetry, a new and more expansive edition of this landmark anthology, chosen and edited by David Lehman. See Oxford's website for more information.

  Terence Winch's "Sex Elegy," which originally appeared in Verse, was chosen by Billy Collins for Best American Poetry.

  The Book of Irish American Poetry from the 18th Century to the Present, the long-awaited anthology that Eamonn Wall calls "prodigious and remarkable," has just been published by the University of Notre Dame Press. Edited by Daniel Tobin, it includes work by Terence Winch, Michael Lally, Ed Cox, Meg Kearney, and scores of other writers. See Notre Dame's site for more information. Check above under Readings for the publication event on Oct. 11, 2007, at NYU's Glucksman Ireland House.

  New poems by Terence Winch have also recently appeared in a number of excellent, print-only journals, including New American Writing #24, Court Green #4, 88: A Journal of Contemporary American Poetry (final issue), An Sionnach, and Smartish Pace #14.

  Check back for upcoming events, media coverage, and related information.

  To order books or recordings by Terence Winch, click above on CONTACT.