Rab Swannock Fulton is one of the most innovative, committed and refreshing writers at work in Ireland today. With a style that combines a sharp political eye with an empathy for human suffering and a humour both black and funny he delineates the fears, failures, hypocrisies, love affairs and humour of contemporary Ireland – an Ireland marked by rapid change, immigration, cultural flux and the impact of the new global politics.

Rab’s work is as mercurial and rapidly-moving as the world he represents in it. Some of the prose work is hard-hitting political writing: the remarkable story “The Face of God”, for instance (written just after 9/11), eerily predicts the use of publicly-broadcast videos by both sides in the Iraqi war that began eighteen months later later. A true internationalist, Rab’s work tracks through Scotland, Ireland and the wider world, while always acknowledging the importance of the local, the here-and now, the detail picked out from individual experience. Even at its most political, this is not news reportage or “objective” journalism in a conventional sense. Seeking a fundamental honesty, this work moves between fiction and fact, inner and outer worlds, personal and public events in that way that all literary production does – in fact, it is this protean ability that gives literature its unique value among forms of communication.

Rab’s poetic writing adds a further, linguistic challenge to his project. The poetry is challenging not just for what it says, but for the way it says it. Uncompromisingly determined to illustrate the expressive capacity of Scots dialect, Rab’s work looks and sounds strange to the non-Scots reader – but so too does Robert Burns. And like Burns, once you get accustomed to the swinging rhythms, the vowels that stay longer than expected, and the other vowels that get clipped almost into non-existence, you begin to hear this speech as natural – certainly as expressive. And it is important to hear it, not just see it. A reader might start with the light-hearted love poems entitled “Cookn”, and move on to the “Three Poyums fur thi New Irish”, before tackling something like the more complex and ambitious poem “Brekdoon”.

But the importance of Rab’s work goes beyond the content of the poetry and fiction itself. The challenge to the political and cultural status quo that his work seeks is not merely a narrative theme. It is also reflected in the very forms through which he has chosen to publish and distribute his work. Taking advantage of the new potential offered by the World Wide Web, and with the support of Fionnuala Gallagher (NUI, Galway Arts Officer) and the web designer Michelle Walsh, Rab’s work is published freely to the entire world via his website TRANSFORMATION, hosted by NUI, Galway.

His work has featured in many publications including: books ireland, burning bush, chapman, criterion, cutting teeth, cyphers, faslane focus, the herald, the guardian, horror.about.com, poetry ireland review, poetry london newsletter,poetry scotland, peace news, rebel inc.,westcoast magazine, west 47.

The open mic session is proving to be an outstanding success, so spread the word if you know a budding poet get them to come along and share their work with an appreciative audience.

Free finger food is provided complements of the White House so come early and enjoy an evening of poetry and fun. Starts 9.00 pm.