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A Lil’ Bit of Lit Crit: “Wake Forest Series of Irish Poetry”
Our latest project at the Press has been drafting permissions letters for our upcoming anthology. The Wake Forest Series of Irish Poetry, Volume III features the works of five Irish poets and will come out early next year. This week we will be contacting the publishers of these poets’ various works and requesting their permission to use…
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week: “Pollen” by Moya Cannon
We felt this poem about pollen by Moya Cannon was incredibly appropriate this week as the season changes from winter to spring. You can read more of her poetry in our anthology The Wake Forest Series of Irish Poetry, Volume II. Pollen And this dust survives through the death of ages. It sleeps in deep…
Continue Reading“The Wild Dog Rose” – A Collaboration of Arts Nearly Fifty Years in the Making
In 1962, a group of Irish musicians formed a band called The Chieftains that would specialize in traditional music. Now fifty years later, The Chieftains are a six-time Grammy award winning group that has popularized traditional Irish music around the world. The band’s name came from the book Death of a Chieftain, written by our…
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week: “Oscar” by Ciaran Carson
Ever wish you could experience winning an Oscar? In light of last weekend’s Academy Awards, today we present you that opportunity, courtesy of one of our most popular poets, Ciaran Carson. Oscar I held the figurine aloft, revelling in my actor’s gravestone smile; I boldly faced an orchestra of flash, as paparazzi packed the aisle. I thanked everyone: all…
Continue ReadingA Lil’ Bit of Lit. Crit.
As promised last week, we at the Press would like to take a moment to dive a little deeper into Boston College’s recent review of Medbh McGuckian’s My Love Has Fared Inland. As previously mentioned, it was nice to see BC’s reviewer, Heather Bryant Jordan, point out the same elements of movement in My Love…
Continue ReadingMusic 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…
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