Wake Forest University Press

Irish Poetry

Ciaran Carson - Collected Poems (clothbound)

Ciaran Carson's Collected Poems gathers work from his eight shape-changing volumes. With each volume, this award-winning poet reinvents the very ground from which his poetry springs.

"At nearly 600 pages, this Collected Poems provides the best introduction to one of Ireland's most interesting contemporary writers. By revealing his persistent recuperation and reworking of motifs from across his career so far, it may also make experienced readers see his work in a new light. Perfection is mainly the goal of miniature; the majority of these poems have other goals and other strengths. In his consistently experimental writing, Carson's investigations of his medium and of the world become a single task. "   Paul Franz, Bookslut

 “…it’s a necessary volume. Carson, who was born and still lives in Belfast, and grew up speaking Irish, is a poet of witness to the Northern Irish conflict. He’s also compulsively playful, a colloquial, ultra-literary story-teller, who changes his formal game with almost every book. … Carson is so deliberate, so fastidiously lackadaisical, such a good yarn-spinner, and so fully there whenever he pauses, that he never loses you. Seeing where he’ll go next is enormous fun. … At his best, he’s better than almost anyone.”  Daisy Fried, Poetry Magazine

April 2009

ISBN 978-1-930630-46-8  clothbound with signature-embossed cover, black and white jacket  $29.95