Channel, Ireland’s journal of environmental writing, to launch its first bilingual issue

Channel, a Dublin-based literary journal publishing poetry and prose that fosters human connection with the natural world, is due to celebrate its eighth issue – featuring, for the first time, writing in both English and Irish – with an online launch on August 9 and an in-person launch on August 10 at Books Upstairs, Dublin.

Channel will mark the release of its eighth issue with an online launch via YouTube Premiere on Wednesday August 9, starting at 6.30pm.

This will be followed by an in-person celebration at Books Upstairs on D’Olier Street, from 6.30pm to 8.00pm on August 10.

Established in 2019 as a creative response to the climate emergency, Channel aims to bring writers and artists together in building new narratives surrounding human relationships with the natural world.

Following in the tradition of international journals of eco-writing such as the US-based Orion Magazine and the UK-based Elementum, it weaves together writing on ecological themes with work that draws on nature variously as setting, image or metaphor, aiming to contribute to the restoration of the natural world as a central touchpoint for human creative thought.

Founding editors Cassia Gaden Gilmartin and Elizabeth Murtough now work alongside a growing team including S.R. Westvik – the 2023 recipient of the journal’s annual Publishing Internship – and Aisling Ní Choibheanaigh Nic Eoin, the journal’s new Irish Language Editor/Eagarthóir Gaeilge, whose participation has been made possible by a Projects Fund award from Foras na Gaeilge.

Issue 8 features writing selected from over 1500 submissions.

For the first time, a selection of poetry in Irish is included, with this issue placing such established poets such as Julie Breathnach-Banwait alongside exciting new voices including Keev O’Baoill and Amano Miura.

These Irish language pieces are presented bilingually, with accompanying English translations by Ní Choibheanaigh Nic Eoin offering non-Irish speakers an opportunity for full engagement with the work.

The issue’s launch at Books Upstairs will feature readings by contributors alongside a performance of traditional music from Muirine Nic Roibín and Anne-Marie Bell. Refreshments will be provided, and Issue 8, along with Channel’s back issues, will be available for purchase.

The online launch will place pre-recorded readings alongside a selection of photo and video content provided by Issue 8 contributors, showcasing the places that Channel’s local and international contributors live in and write from.

On the release of Issue 8, the editors say:

“We couldn’t be more proud to introduce a bilingual element into Channel’s practice with this issue, or more grateful to Aisling as Eagarthóir Gaeilge for guiding us through the rich engagement with the landscape, plants and creatures of this island that writing in Irish has to offer.

“The formation of language, shaped as it is by collective relationships with place, has always fascinated us – and to move from publishing solely in English towards engagement with Ireland’s native language has always been a goal for our work.

“We hope this issue’s readers will feel invigorated, as we do, by the deep expressive potential of a language formed over millennia in close relation with the landscape and non-human life of this country.”

On the publication of the journal’s first bilingual issue, the Irish Language Editor says:

“For Channel to be embarking upon this new journey with the Irish language reflects the strength, and the connection, that exists still within it.

Shaped by the sharp rocks in the Atlantic, by the scent of bog plants, by the hands of countless families and communities, Irish is a language created by and within its own environment.

It grows around the roots of yew, hazel and oak; in the seeds of spear thistle and foxgloves; in the green juice of nettles.

It grows in the songs of school-children, and in the woven centres of crosses we make for Brigid. It continues growing, against all the odds.”

Channel Issue 8 is available for pre-order online, with domestic and international shipping options, at www.channelmag.org/current-issue/

The editors are grateful for the financial support of the Arts Council in sustaining their work, and to Foras na Gaeilge for funding the journal’s shift towards a bilingual future.