Ciarán Hodgers

Ciarán's poems found me when I needed them. Reading them in London as an Irishman abroad, just as Ciarán is, they resonated with me all the more. I felt like I had a guide in the wilderness, I felt I saw the world anew because of his art. Most importantly I ask myself do I believe him? Has he changed me? The answer is yes on both counts. - Stephen James Smith

​

A poetic pilgrimage that exists somewhere between a heavy night out, a voyage into outer space and a traditional Irish folk song. That expands into unexpected depths with the same subtlety as the universe. That travels effortlessly between the epic and the everyday, with Ciarán’s trademark philosophical elegance and unmistakeable musicality. - Sara Hirsch

​

Cosmocartography is a map of the heart. It is a book of exile and belonging, of a strange body in a strange land, a strange word in an uncomfortable mouth. It is a book of ghosts, grief and unaccountable happiness. Passionate, lyrical and honest. A book of beauty. - Joelle Taylor

​

Cosmocartograpy is a visceral, cinematic journey through nostalgia, chaos and stardust. It’s an education in movement and migration, through land, age and space. A necessary and beautiful collection, spoken in the distinctive rhythm of an inimitable poet. Make sure you’re sitting down to read this because it packs punches that left me floored. - Lisa Luxx

​

This is a clear-sighted, inquisitive and hopeful collection, one that takes pleasure in language and finds consolation in the bonds it helps us forge, with each other and with the universe. When taken together the six chapters form a complete and pleasing whole, but for me the book is at its most compelling in Storge, with its emphasis on an often difficult love of family and home.  Here, with great tenderness, but also with a rare and pleasing directness, Hodgers navigates the troubled terrain of emigrant identity.  There’s anger here, but humour too, and a genuine winning warmth. As a title Cosmocartography is apt, invoking as it does Hodgers' stellar linguistic flourishes, but also in its conviction that we might use this language as a map to tell us who we are, where we’re going, and what it means to be human. - Fran Lock

​

This is more than a collection of poems. This is a constellation of memories and dreams that take you on a journey. Ciarán Hodgers is a fine poet, who deftly weaves themes of belonging, sexuality, literature and our own limitless histories to create something expansive and brilliant. This nuanced collection will elevate you- it is full to the brim with feeling. You will want to read it again and again, to unpack all the love and subtleties packed into each verse. A stunning debut. - Malaika Kegode

​

It is enormously engaging, soulful, funny, tender-hearted and sweeping in its scope. You have such a brilliant eye for detail and a peerless sense of how to cpature the humour and poignancy of daily life and the way these formative details feed into our relationships with loved ones, family and with the wider world. It was a really uplifting, enriching, life-affirming read. - Bidisha SK Mamata