Past events
 ‘an innovative, deeply imagined and delicately wrought book.’ Neil Hegarty, the Irish Times, December 17, 2022
If the River is Hidden (Epoque Press, 2022) charts the journey of two writers from the source to the mouth of the Bann, Northern Ireland’s longest river. Through a dialogue of prose and poetry the history, landscape and divisions that have come to define the North are explored and challenged.
If the River is Hidden showcased at the London Irish Centre, the Purcell Rooms, the Belfast Book Festival and the Skibbereen Festival, among others in 2023
Buy a copy of If the River is Hidden from Epoque Press
Buy the audio book Spiracle
Famished is a book and a performance project that explores the Irish Famine and how imperialism helped cause the largest refugee crisis of the 19th century. Cherry collaborated with composer Ed Bennett and vocalist Lauren Kinsella to draw on the power of collective lament, using poetry, music and expanded singing.
Buy a copy of Famished from Pindrop Press
Four Voices - 7 May 2019
Cherry is reading from the new collection Famished with three other poets: Dino Mahoney, Jane McLaughlin and Colin Pink.
West Greenwich Library, 146 Greenwich High Road, SE10, 8NN
7.30pm - FREE
Symposium and Performance of Famished - 7 Feb 2019
Uses of Lament: the Irish Famine & legacies of trauma
Symposium 14.00-18.00
Performance of Famished at 19.00-20.00, followed by a Q&A
The Stephen Lawrence Gallery
University of Greenwich
Stockwell Street
London SE10 9BD
This half-day symposium will develop the idea of collective lament, examining the Famine's legacy, giving audiences a chance to experience their own cultural and political history in an innovative and healing way.
A range of writers, visual artists and theorists will explore the somatic effects of oppression and suffering to disturb new truths about history and trauma and show how they can be re-presented through diverse platforms.
The symposium ends with a premiere performance of Cherry Smyth's Famished, followed by a Q&A.
Register to attend this free event at Eventbrite: https://bit.ly/2C7fg8p - SOLD OUT
 December 6th, Famished - SOLD OUT
Cherry Smyth performs Famished at Toynbee Studios
Famished is a long, poetic sequence written by Cherry Smyth that explores the Irish Famine (1845-51) and the role of colonialism in causing the largest migration of the nineteenth century. Cherry has collaborated with Irish composer Ed Bennett and vocalist Lauren Kinsella to draw on the power of collective lament, using music and expanded singing.
Read more: www.artsadmin.co.uk/events/4172.
Toynbee Studios
28 Commercial Street
E1 6AB London
7:30pm. Tickets £5
 October 6th, Reflections on 1968
Cherry Smyth reads from new work at the Playhouse, Derry at 7.00pm as part of the 50th Anniversary of Civil Rights Commemoration Events.
Others writers include: Medbh McGuckian, Jean Bleakney, Anne Devlin, Sheena Wilkinson, Wendy Erskine, Maureen Boyle and Moyra Donaldson.
Tickets £5
Visit: www.derryplayhouse.co.uk//events/2.
 Podcast 'Why I Write'
Cherry's podcast 'Why I Write' is available on the
Royal Literary Fellowship's website. You can listen to it here:
www.rlf.org.uk/showcase-cat/audio/?rlf_front=1.
 Studio 1.1 V&A&A, curated by Andy Cohen
VANESSA JACKSON, ANNA BOGGON and AMANDA BENSON will be in conversation with CHERRY SMYTH at 4.30 pm on Sunday 25 March.
Studio 1.1
57a Redchurch Street
London E2 7DJ
Drinks at 5.30pm
www.studio1-1.co.uk/
Cherry is joining Irish authors Mary Dorcey, Jamie O Neill and Barry McCrea to discuss queer representation in Irish literature.
October 30th, 7.30-8.30pm
The Bloomsbury Hotel
16-22 Great Russell St
WC1B 3NN
£10/£5 unwaged/student
See: irishlitsoc.org/event/writing-gay-lives
 Recent Publications in BLACKBOX MANIFOLD
Two long poetic sequences appeared in Blackbox Manifold, Issue 18.
You can read them here:
www.manifold.group.shef.ac.uk/issue18/CherrySmythBM18.html
 Two new poems in Female Lines: New Writing by Women from Northern Ireland
Two new poems are published in the anthology Female Lines: New Writing by Women from Northern Ireland, New Island Press, co-edited by Linda Anderson and Dawn Miranda Sherratt-Bado, with a launch reading at the Crescent Arts Centre, Belfast, November 1st, 6.30pm.
The Female Lines are out on 18th October and it is now available to pre-order on New Island's website here.
 New essay 'Bystander' on Copy Press
Copy Press has published Cherry Smyth’s essay, ‘Bystander’, in response to The Easter Rising, 1916
You can download the essay here (PDF).
 Four new poems published in 'FourXFour Poetry Journal'
Celebrating new work by Northern Irish poets, ‘FourXFour Poetry Journal’ (Issue 17, Autumn 2016, Edited by Colin Darke), showcases four of Cherry Smyth's new poems.
You can read them here (PDF).
 Three new poems by Cherry Smyth published on PoetHead
Cherry has three new poems published on PoetHead, one of the leading sites for women poets.
The three poems are Evensong, Where it Led You and Anniversary Poem
You can read them here.
Progressive Poetics
“Poetry makes nothing happen.” (W. H. Auden, 1939)
“To write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric.” (Theodor Adorno, 1949)
American poet, Harvey Hix, has been compiling a conversation on the purpose of poetry called 'Progressive Poetics'. The format is unique and intriguing. He has solicited 200 word strings from a diverse range of poets who are asked to respond to an earlier statement of theirs about poetry's power or role. He asks 'What must or might be said now about poetry?'
See how Cherry Smyth and others poets like Charles Bernstein and Alicia Ostriker have responded at http://www.hlhix.com/inquire and leave a comment.
 Performance at the Irish Museum of Modern Art
Tuesday 13 December 2016 / 7pm / Great Hall, IMMA / €8
Cherry Smyth performed at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, as part of Jaki Irvine’s installation ‘If the Ground Should Open’, a feminist commemoration of the Easter Rising.
Read Cherry Smyth’s poem and blog on the Irish Museum of Modern Art website:
immablog.org/2016/11/30/foreign-body-a-poem-by-cherry-smyth-in-response-to-jaki-irvines-if-the-ground-should-open/
Hatchards Bookstore: Cherry Smyth in conversation with Daniel Sutherland, "Whistler and his Muse"
Thursday, 26 June 2014
7:00pm
187 Piccadilly, London W1J 9LE
Join Whistler biographer Daniel E. Sutherland in conversation with novelist Cherry Smyth for an evening illuminating the artist’s life through some of his most well-known paintings, including those of his model and muse Joanna Hiffernan, the subject of Smyth’s debut novel Hold Still.
Tickets cost £8, redeemable against the purchase of the authors’ books on the night of the event, with a complimentary glass of wine.
Whitechapel Gallery, London
Discussion: The Real World: Art, Gender and the Media
Thursday 6 March, 7pm - 8.30pm
Is the work of female artists still undervalued by the media? How have artists used or challenged this within their work? This seminar will explore the impact that critical recognition may have on a career; open up a discussion around media, communication and representation; and explore some of the value systems at play in contemporary practice.
Rebecca Fortnum will be joined in conversation by Cherry Smyth, moderated by Orlagh Woods from Artquest.
> > Read more here
London Art Fair 2014, Islington
Talk & Tours - THE MUSE
Thu 16 Jan, 1pm-2pm
Exploring sexual politics, psychology and power relations, this discussion looks at the two way relationship between artist and muse and the role of women as muses throughout history. Chair Sue Steward, broadcaster and photography critic for the Evening Standard, is joined by Director Anthony Penrose, artist Sarah Pucill and novelist, poet and critic Cherry Smyth.
 Limber: Spatial Painting Practices
Curated by Cherry Smyth and Jost Münster
Herbert Read Gallery Canterbury
September 13 - October 12
Private View: September 12, 6pm-9pm
Symposium: October 5
Grandes Galleries de L’Erba
Rouen, France
November 21- December 20, 2013
Artists
Jost Münster, Ian Bottle, Katie Bell, Simon Callery, Jim Lee, Irene van de Mheen, Elodie Seguin, Ian Pedigo, Audrey Reynolds and Guillermo Mora.
July 31st, 2013, 1-1.45pm
Cherry Smyth gives a talk about Aquatopia: the Imaginary of the Ocean Deep including work by Mikhail Karikis, Hannah Wilke, Ana Mendieta, Wangechi Mutu and Dorothy Cross. She will focus on themes of gender and sexuality in this expansive show.
August 1st, 2013, 6.30pm
Cherry Smyth leads an interactive, gender-playful tour of Keep Your Timber Limber which includes the radical, taboo-busting work of the following artists: Judith Bernstein, Tom of Finland, George Grosz, Margaret Harrison, Mike Kuchar, Cary Kwok, Antonio Lopez and Marlene McCarty.
June 30th, 2013, 7pm
A tour of highlights from Tate Britain’s collection displays with a lesbian, gay, bi or trans theme, in which Cherry Smyth and Michael Langan are invited to cast an eye over 500 years of British art throughout the newly rehung galleries
July 5th, 2013, 7pm
Cherry Smyth leads a unique tour around the UK’s first substantial solo exhibition of Ellen Gallagher:AxME. Gallagher’s varied practice draws from an eclectic range of sources, including literature, music, myth, black popular culture, science fiction and advertising. Tate presents the UK’s first substantial solo exhibition of her work showing key works as well as new work which will be show to the public for the first time.
Poetry Reading at John Hewitt Spring Literary Festival
Other writers include Sanfraz Manzoor, Ronan Bennett and Michael McKimm, May, 2013
Poetry Reading at Cheltenham Literature Festival
Also featuring Jo Hemmant, Alicia Stubbersfield, April, 2013
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alk at Tate Britain