The Irish Literary Times

John Ennis is one of Ireland’s most well-established senior poets. With fourteen collections and a bevy of prizes behind him, he also has a special connection to Newfoundland and Labrador. As Head of the School of Humanities at Waterford Institute of Technology until his retirement in 2009, he was Chair of the Centre for Newfoundland and Labrador Studies. During his position he edited a book of Irish and Newfoundland poetry.

In his fascinating and perhaps most ambitious collection to date, Ennis turns his attention north again, this time to Iceland through the unlikely inspiration of the post-rock band, Sigur Rós. Ennis came relatively late to the band, only discovering them for the first time in 2011 while watching the award-winning 2007 documentary, Heima, (Icelandic for "home") which tracked a series of free concerts Sigur Rós gave in Iceland. Ennis fell for the band, hook, line and sinker, and has been strongly under the Sigur Rós spell ever since. Now that spell has transmuted into a book of remarkable poems that responds to their music.