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Music as Muse: The Importance of Jazz for Michael Longley
In an interview with Culture Northern Ireland, our poet Michael Longley stated that his favorite types of music were “Boogie-woogie and Bach.” Longley claims that he has been guided by the musical muse since he first began writing in his teenage years. According to an article Longley wrote for The Guardian in 2011, the muse has…
Continue ReadingInterns’ Corner: So Many New Reviews!!
Here at the press, we’re really ecstatic about the multitude of reviews our poets have been featured in recently. As if Harry Clifton’s review of last week’s featured poet, Thomas Kinsella, wasn’t coincidental enough, this afternoon, we received our issue Boston College’s Irish Literary Supplement and found a few more surprises. Not only did the supplement include a new review of…
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week: “Time-Words” by Medbh McGuckian
Published the year I was born, Medbh McGuckian’s Marconi’s Cottage is full of mysterious and intriguing poems. Her use of metaphors and similes makes the following a beautiful piece of writing and an inspiring work of art. Time-Words I am a debt, soon I will be added, As words wither away with the things they describe, As…
Continue ReadingA Lil’ Bit of Lit Crit.: Harry Clifton on Thomas Kinsella
This weekend, some of you may have seen that our very own Harry Clifton wrote a review on yet another one of our poets, Thomas Kinsella, for this Saturday’s Irish Times! In the review, Clifton writes that in the later work of poets, “we find a flattening out of the poetic line, a casualness that can…
Continue ReadingReading Between the Pixels: What Cover Art Really Means
They say that you can’t judge a book by its cover, but in the case of poet John Montague’s new book Speech Lessons, the cover is quite revealing. The image on the cover comes from a painting titled Adam and Eve by German painter Hans Baldung, the artist of the crucifixion painting upon which Montague meditates in…
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week: “Artists’ Letters” by Thomas Kinsella
While you’ve probably heard enough about love for this week, today, The Press has one more poem we’d like to share with you. This poem is bit of a throwback for us. It’s from our 1986 reprint of Thomas Kinsella’s Peppercanister Poems: 1972–1978, and it is dedicated to our truest love, the written word.
Continue ReadingA Lil’ Bit of Lit. Crit.
What is the place of poetry in modern society? An unoriginal question, I know. But, it is clear that, at best, there is a certain collective ambivalence towards it, evidenced by the shrinking sections of poetry in libraries, bookstores, and on personal bookshelves. Poetry, sadly (or not-so-sadly for others), is often declared to be a…
Continue ReadingValentine’s Day
In honor of St. Valentine’s Day, we at WFU Press have selected three different poems that cover the different spectrums of that confusing but beautiful thing known as love. Michael Longley’s poem “The Scissors Ceremony” depicts the heartwarming image of an old couple that are still very much in love. In contrast, John Montague reminds…
Continue ReadingHarry Clifton: An Irishman Abroad
Though poet Harry Clifton is a native Dubliner and currently lives in Ireland, he has spent much of his adult life on the move. Clifton grew up in Ireland and attended University College Dublin, but left the country when he was twenty-five to teach at a teacher training college in Post-Civil War Nigeria. From there…
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week: “Augury” by Caitríona O’Reilly
This week’s poem is by Caitríona O’Reilly, whose poems are featured in our recent anthology, The Wake Forest Book of Irish Women’s Poetry. Last fall, the Wake Forest community was offered the opportunity to listen to O’Reilly, along with Rita Ann Higgins, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, and Leontia Flynn, as the Women’s Anthology tour kicked off…
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