The Non-Human Irresistible : A Speculative Poetry Event on Portals, Ports and Shorelines, from Cork and Merseyside

The special issue documents, reflectively builds on and analyses the poetry event "Poems from Port Cities", run at the ó Bhéal Winter Warmer Festival in November 2022. The event was a themed, collective poetry event that included readings from two poets from Cork (Mary Noonan and Matthew Geden) and two based in Merseyside (Greg Quiery and Eleanor Rees) and a thematic reflective discussion chaired by Cornelia Gräbner. The special issue demonstrates, firstly, that such a poetry event should be considered a specific event genre -- the speculative poetry event -- and secondly, that a speculative poetry event can and should be considered a resource, like a written article, which produces new knowledge and contributes to the public debate on topics of public interest. The special issue also shows that such an event requires active conceptualization, curation, and organisational embedding within a social context.