Channel have announced the publication of Holdfast, by Annette Skade
Channel have announced their first single-authored project, a poetry chapbook by two-time contributor Annette Skade.
Growing out of a single poem published in Channel Issue 2, Holdfast is a moving tribute both to the work of nineteenth-century botanist Ellen Hutchins and to the seaweed around which Ellen built her life’s work.
Channel is a literary journal born out of the climate crisis, publishing writing in English and Irish that fosters connection between people and planet. Channel is published by Managing Editor Cassia Gaden Gilmartin, Eagarthóir Gaeilge/Irish Language Editor Aisling Ní Choibheanaigh Nic Eoin, and Publishing Intern Emily Iseult Duggan.
Confined by lockdown to her home in Bantry Bay and witnessing its changing face in a time of environmental degradation, Annette Skade began to comb the landscape and archives of her locality in search of connection to the life of one of its most famous residents: nineteenth-century botanist Ellen Hutchins, who collected hundreds of seaweeds, lichens, mosses and liverworts and discovered several new species in the course of a short life spent tied to Bantry as a carer for her mother and brother.
Holdfast is the fruit of this creative inquiry – a poetic sequence taking its shape from the algae studied by Ellen, moving from tip to anchor-point; an act of friendship across centuries, and a paean both to the work of a great scientist and to the resilience of seaweed.
The cover and interior are illustrated with artwork from Marina Dmitrik’s photo series seaweed, first exhibited as part of IMMA’s eco-art festival Earth Rising in 2023.
All are welcome to join the author, publisher and guest speaker Mary Noonan (author of Stone Girl and The Fado House) for a launch at Bantry Library on Friday 23 August, 6.00pm–7.30pm, as part of the Ellen Hutchins Festival, an annual Heritage Week festival celebrating Ellen’s legacy and the natural and cultural heritage of Bantry Bay.
