Released 31st March, 2025 // 154 pages // 978-1-916938-87-8 // RRP: £14.99
Daragh Fleming’s A Brief Inhalation is a candid exploration of contemporary existence, dissecting themes of identity, dislocation, and introspection with a sharp, unflinching eye. Blurring the line between essay, memoir, and poetic observation, Fleming navigates encounters with the absurd, the intimate, and the existential with a voice that is wry, incisive, and deeply human. From fragmented conversations to immersive cityscapes, from the weight of memory to the fluidity of self-perception, this collection captures the restlessness of a mind attuned to the strange rhythms of modern life.
PRAISE for A Brief Inhalation:
A Brief Inhalation is Cork-born poet, essayist and activist Daragh Fleming’s warm, meditative and often laugh-out-loud funny treatise on grief, loss, discomfort and coming-of-age. Covering subjects as diverse as the strange and melancholy beauty of inherited clothing, inner city skateboarding, ADHD, childhood snake rearing, the world of social (and anti-social) media, and all too brief interludes with mysterious strangers who leave lasting impressions, Fleming, with trademark wit and honesty weaves his way from his home in Ireland on travels through Barcelona, Prague, London and Lyon observing new and unfamiliar locales through the eyes of an outsider searching for connection. Part creative manifesto, part travelogue, part personal memoir, there are shades of early Richard Linklater in these tales of missed romantic opportunity and youthful misadventure with a roll call of unforgettable characters who leap off the page.
— Lucy Holme
These diary-like episodes show Fleming’s fearlessness, exposing his young heart’s frailties and transgressions with the art and honesty of a poet.
— Paul McVeigh
A Brief Inhalation is a book that you will, as the title demands, inhale as Daragh fumbles his way, disarmingly, through Europe and his emotions. Reminding you with every carefully chosen word, every cautionary tale, that the only person who can save you is you.
— Kate Durrant
Throughout the impactful, soul-baring essays in A Brief Inhalation, Daragh Fleming shares with the reader personal experiences ranging from the sublime to the surreal. With a twist of deadpan humour and a poetic sensibility, he harnesses a tender honesty to write about navigating love and friendship in the digital age, the trials of burgeoning sexuality and finding connection among strangers abroad. This is a deeply human and intimate collection of memories, ruminations and revelations, penned by a writer whose greatest strength is his willingness to be vulnerable in a world that doesn’t always reward vulnerability.
— Aoife Barry
ABOUT Daragh Fleming:
Daragh Fleming is a writer from Cork, Ireland. He has work published in many literary magazines, including Stand, Southword, and Crannóg. He was shortlisted for the Alpine Fellowship Poetry Prize in 2024, and highly commended for both the Patrick Kavanagh Award and the Fool For Poetry Prize in 2023. He won the Duncairn Flash Competition in 2024. This is his second collection of essays.
