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Remarks on Carson’s “The Fetch,” from For All We Know, Part Two
The Fetch I woke. You were lying beside me in the double bed, prone, your long dark hair fanned out over the downy pillow. I’d been dreaming we stood on a beach an ocean away watching the waves purl into their troughs and tumble over. Knit one, purl two, you said. Something in your voice…
Continue ReadingReading Carson’s “The Fetch,” from For All We Know, Part One
The Fetch To see one’s own doppelganger is an omen of death. The doppelganger casts no reflection in a mirror. Shelley saw himself swimming towards himself before he drowned. Lincoln met his fetch at the stage door before he was shot. It puts me in mind of prisoners interrogated, of one telling his story so…
Continue ReadingThe Wake Forest Series of Irish Poetry, Volume III, Launches in Paris
The Paris launch earlier this month included readings by the anthology’s featured poets, an appearance by Conor O’Callaghan, Volume III editor and author of the forthcoming book The Sun King, as well as a lecture on the state and future of Irish poetry by Wake Forest Press director Professor Jefferson Holdridge. We at the press…
Continue ReadingKennelly to Collaborate with Daughter on Authorized Biography
Evincing a bit of the good-humored aplomb for which he’s long enjoyed a reputation as a people’s poet among his Irish readership, Brendan Kennelly quipped that he’d “have to throw myself around in the sea in Ballybunion to shock my childhood memories back.” Kennelly and daughter Doodle will reportedly begin work on the biography next…
Continue ReadingOur New Website Is Live
At long last, and after much blood, sweat, and data-entry, we’ve finally launched our new website! Check it out at http://wfupress.wfu.edu/, where you’ll find an updated product catalogue, a streamlined order and payment system, a general aesthetic facelift, and links to our Facebook and Twitter pages.
Continue Reading“Belfast Confetti,” Writers Workshops, and Modern Security
“The subversive half-brick, conveniently hand-sized, is an essential ingredient of the ammunition known as ‘Belfast confetti’, and has been tried and trusted by a generation of rioters.”–Ciaran Carson, “Brick” What happens when the “real world” gets in the way of creativity? Glenn Patterson happened to be leading a workshop for the Fermanaugh Writers in Enniskellen–while…
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week: “Landscape by Bus” by Justin Quinn
Landscape by Bus Look out the window—half A landscape, half its trees. Switch focus. Reflections of The rest float by on these. At sixty miles an hour The world’s being folded back Into a suitcase. Where Oh where will I unpack? –Justin Quinn, from The Wake Forest Series of Irish Poetry, Volume III (2013)
Continue ReadingThe Poetry Project
Harry Clifton’s poem “Picardy” was highlighted in the latest piece for The Poetry Project. Take a few moments to just breath and enjoy a mental health break with this combination of poetry and natural imagery: David Farrell and Harry Clifton, “Picardy” . “Picardy” is from Clifton’s volume Secular Eden, winner of the 2008 Irish Times Poetry Now…
Continue ReadingLouis MacNeice Poetry Evening
On May 17th, in conjunction with Ireland’s National Poetry Day celebrations, contemporary poets gathered to mark the 50th anniversary of Louis MacNeice’s death. Sinéad Morrissey, Ciaran Carson, Lucy Caldwell, and others joined together for readings at Ulster Hall in Belfast. MacNeice also has an international appeal, as demonstrated by the participation of Bermudian poet Paul…
Continue ReadingWake: Up to Poetry Reading and Celebration
If you weren’t able to make it to our Wake: Up to Poetry reading and celebration last month, you’re in luck. Thanks to The Wake Forest Interdisciplinary Performance and Liberal Arts Center (iPLACe) and the Wake Forest Documentary Film Program, we now have this lovely video of highlights from the event. We hope you enjoy…
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