SWERVE publishes vibrant and fresh writing and visual art from Ireland in both print and digital formats. We also invite international artists and writers to contribute. However, there is much more to us:

SWERVE PROJECT SPACE: a pop-up gallery exhibiting interesting and original visual art that does not have a home in mainstream galleries or large public institutions. It also gives us the opportunity to show the work of our annual artist-in-residence as part of the Skibbereen Arts Festival. Please see EVENTS page for more details of past exhibitions. 

SWERVE ARTIST/WRITER COLLABORATION: We arrange writer/artist collaborations for publication in the journal. In 2023 sculptor Charlotte Malik and writer Hannah Hoare worked on a visual art/writing project for publication in SWERVE 2. We exhibited the resulting soft sculpture installation by Charlotte at SWERVE Project Space to coincide with a reading by Hannah. In 2024 we published the work of Cork poet Kemi George Simpson and artist Henny Lees in SWERVE 3. The 2025 collaboration features Cork poet Nate van Sweden and London digital artist Antony Buonomo.

THE SWERVE RESIDENCY PROGRAMME enables artists and writers to spend time in the wonderful landscapes of West Cork, based in a self-contained live-work apartment at our Skibbereen HQ. In 2024 SWERVE hosted Palestinian poet Shahd Karaeen, sculptor Charlotte Malik (UK), writer Hannah Hoare (UK) and Jason Stoneking, an American poet resident in Paris. Please see SWERVE Residencies page for more details.

THE LIT LOUNGE is a dedicated performance space for resident and local writers. The headline writers are invited to read in an informal, intimate, and supportive space. The reading is followed by an open mic to encourage exchange between writer and audience. We have hosted the following writers: Shahd Karaeen, Hannah Hoare, Daragh Fleming, Jason Stoneking and many local writers via the Open Mic. Please see EVENTS page for details of past readings. 2025 begins with readings by debut novelists Sharon Guard and June O’Sullivan.

WHY SWERVE?

SWERVE is named in homage to VERVE, a magazine that was published in France in the first part of the 20th century. We own a copy of the last issue of VERVE to come out of Paris in 1940, at the beginning of WW2, that celebrates French culture in the face of barbarism. It is a treasured possession and was the inspiration for the format of a journal that seeks to give equal weight to the word and the visual image. Ironically, SWERVE launched as we watched in disbelief whilst war raged in Europe.

We feel that the arts are crucial in countering this spirit of destruction and nationalistic inward-looking. It is our aim to publish new and emerging writing, but another ambition is to publish works in translation. It seems essential that the arts should strive to build bridges, foster understanding, and transcend boundaries. It is our intention that future issues of SWERVE will contribute to this ethos. We hope to achieve it by emphasizing translated works by international writers and, in conjunction with powerful visual images, create an impactful experience for our readers.

Image: Krystina Stimakovits (SWERVE 3, detail)