It’s been just over ten years since Smithereens Press published Atoll, an e-chapbook of twelve poems. Each of the poems would also feature in Blood Oranges, my first collection, so Atoll functioned as a kind of introduction to the longer, physical book. I approached Smithereens Press because I loved what they had been doing, producing mini-collections of work by a mixture of established and up and coming poets such as Doireann Ní Ghríofa, Christine Murray and Maurice Scully. In order to make Atoll somewhat cohesive all the poems I selected contained references to water. The abandoned colony of Mexican citizens left to fend for themselves on Clipperton Island, the Isla de las Muñecas (doll island) in Xochimilco, the murder of an acquaintance whose body was thrown in the border river and a story I’d been told about circus elephants bathing in the sea at Blacksod, Co. Mayo, all these stories and more provided inspiration for the poems in Atoll. I’m very grateful to Ken Keating for publishing this and giving me the confidence to approach other publishers. Smithereens Press is currently dormant but Atoll is still available to read for free here. In fact, you can find all of the Smithereens Press Publications here. The cover image (a depiction of Clipperton atoll) was made by Jonathan Brennan whose work you can see (and buy) here.