Blog
BEST OF 2013: WFU Press Style
It’s that time of year again. Christmas trees are going up, people are frantically searching for just the right present, holiday plans are being made and, of course, The Best Of lists are being released all month. Maybe you watched that video about the best of Youtube in 2013 or heard Miley Cyrus was named…
Continue ReadingThe Sun King Review
Conor O’Callaghan’s forthcoming The Sun King was recently reviewed by Billy Ramsell in The Stinging Fly. Ramsell describes O’Callaghan’s style as “an almost Shakespearean tendency to render reality not only by means of literary devices but in terms of those very tropes and conceits. Again and again in this his superbly reflexive fourth collection parts of…
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week: “Away” by Vona Groarke
Though the majority of the Irish poetry we publish is actually about Ireland, we are not without some poems that feature our own backyard. This week’s Poem of the Week is set in North Carolina. Vona Groarke, in her acclaimed collection Spindrift, wrote of the time she spent as Poet-in-Residence here at Wake Forest University. This…
Continue ReadingThese words are made for walking
A daily dose of poetry is just what the Wake Forest campus needs. Our interns have been busy chalking lines of poetry all over campus. Students stopped, read, and asked, “What is this for?”
Continue ReadingPoetryFest
Over the weekend, the Irish Arts Center in New York City hosted its 5th annual PoetryFest. Contemporary Irish poets including our own Conor O’Callaghan, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, and Colette Bryce (from the Wake Forest Series 3) all read poetry at this event. We are delighted to be publishing O’Callaghan’s new book, The Sun King, later this year.
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week: “On Not Experiencing the Ultraviolet Catastrophe” by Maurice Riordan
On Not Experiencing the Ultraviolet Catastrophe Unlike my childhood neighbour Jacksy Hickey Who, rain or shine, wore a black gabardine, Reasoning what was good to keep heat in Was good enough, by definition, to keep it out, We, when we reach the heart of the cornfield, Know better: we shed each other’s clothes. Oh, you…
Continue ReadingBook of the Month: Paula Meehan’s “Painting Rain”
For November, the book of the month is Painting Rain, the 2009 collection of poetry from Paula Meehan. Painting Rain is full of sadness, and death, and memory; images of the present are wrapped up with the past. This is a book about how things change, will always change, will never remain the same. In…
Continue Reading“Bigger isn’t always better: Confessions from Wake Forest University Press interns on working at a small university press”
Wake Forest University Press is the premier publisher of Irish poetry in North America. Despite the lofty designation, it is among the smallest university presses in America. WFUP publishes an average of 4-6 titles each year, all from native Irish poets. It employs two full-time staff members, in addition to a half dozen or so…
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week: “Sleep” by Katie Donovan
This week’s Poem of the Week comes from one of our favorite anthologies of poetry, The Wake Forest Book of Irish Women’s Poetry. As we near the end of the semester, with all its hustle and bustle, Katie Donovan’s poem “Sleep” feels particularly striking. The poem has a peaceful, relaxing tone, and artfully reminds us to…
Continue ReadingVona Groarke in The New Yorker
Landscape – Kongevejen near Gentofte by Vilhelm Hammershøi The November 11 issue of The New Yorker features Vona Groarke’s poem “The Landscapes of Vilhelm Hammershøi.” Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864-1916) was a Danish painter best known for his low-key, soft portraits and interiors. Enigmatic and secretive, his paintings were described as “highly traditional, but also distinctively modern”…
Continue Reading