Wake Forest University Press

These convincing and powerful lyrics were written before, during, and after a period of personal preoccupation with a family illness. Deeply rooted in the poet's inner life, these poems movingly display the inroads of suffering, despair and relief.

Paperback with flaps  $13.95
ISBN 978-1-930630-51-2
May, 2010

"With this sequence of tiny, haunting poems Carson--venturesome as ever--may be wanting us less to read in the conventional sense than 'to watch // what never seems / to alter' as you run frame after frame of a film reel through your fingers."
The Sunday Times (London)

May, 2010
Paperback with flaps   $13.95

ISBN 978-1-930630-50-5

"...Ciaran Carson's much anticipated Collected Poems establishes him--for those who still need convincing--as a major poet both within and outside the borders of his native Northern Ireland. The book, which includes eight collections over the pat thirty years, is unlike many volumes of collected poems, which pay homage to the poet's best years. Carson's Collected is, by contrast, more overture than coda. Not content to rest on past sucesses and revisit old forms, Carson offers risky innovations with each new collection, allowing for new readings not only of Northern ireland but of the poetic line itself." Heather Clark, Harvard Review Online

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

 “…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

ISBN 978-1-930630-45-1  paperback   $19.95

Selected as the Spring 2008 Choice by the Poetry Book Society

One of Only Five Poetry Books Selected by Publishers Weekly as "Best Books of the Year"

Please note: This is now the only available edition. The hardback is out of print.

April 2008   110 pages       paperback    $12.95

Ciaran Carson's new volume of poems, For All We Know, is one he has been schooling himself to write all of his writing life. ... [It] is a tour de force. In it we see a poet who draws on the past without repeating, using the poetic tradition and his own earlier works as stepping stones toward a new form. This exciting new structure and the haunting story within it stand as the culmination of his work to date." Helen Emmitt, Irish Literary Supplement

"As with all of Carson's poetry, this collection is essential.  No one else is doing anything like it." Ross Moore, Culture Northern Ireland

"For All We Know is a terrific book -- smart, and funny, and warm. It invites (and rewards!) re-reading without being rebarbative about its intelligence or complexity. I can't think of a book I have enjoyed more thoroughly over the past two years." Jason B. Jones, bookslut.com

2006   80 pages 
clothbound
Limited, signed, and numbered      
First edition with plain vellum wrapper

“Carson’s translation of 'The Midnight Court' is that rarest of things: a small and utterly enjoyable masterpiece. It brings to a wider audience than ever before a great and neglected piece of 18th century literature and, to an American readership, something equally important. In this country, poetry now is more frequently written than read, and the pleasures of the long poem are all but lost. By and large, our poets lack ambition and their meager audiences the patience. What Carson offers the willing in these 60 pages of poetry with a brief introduction is a rollicking evening of instruction in the pleasures of a long and entertaining poem.”  Tim Rutten, Los Angeles Times

2006   80 pages       
paperback

“Carson’s translation of The Midnight Court is that rarest of things: a small and utterly enjoyable masterpiece. It brings to a wider audience than ever before a great and neglected piece of 18th century literature and, to an American readership, something equally important. In this country, poetry now is more frequently written than read, and the pleasures of the long poem are all but lost. By and large, our poets lack ambition and their meager audiences the patience. What Carson offers the willing in these 60 pages of poetry with a brief introduction is a rollicking evening of instruction in the pleasures of a long and entertaining poem.”  Tim Rutten, Los Angeles Times

2003   64 pages
clothbound

Winner of the 2003 Forward Prize for Best Poetry Collection

"Ciaran Carson is the circus act of contemporary Irish letters — a double-jointed marvel who defies the narrow, classifying imagination." Ian Samson, The Guardian

2003   64 pages
paperback

Winner of the 2003 Forward Prize for Best Poetry Collection

"... Carson displays a constant, playful inventiveness in discovering new ways in which the rhythms of spoken and written (journalistic) language can come to be perceived as poetry." Poetry Review

2001   137 pages
clothbound

"The selections from each of the seven books of poetry to date...allow a reader to see the progression and transformation of this enormously inventive poet across twenty-five years. ... this volume is a real opportunity for American readers to get a sense of the reach and imagination of this major Irish poet." - Kevin Murphy, Irish Literary Supplement