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A Lil’ Bit of Lit. Crit.: “The Essential Brendan Kennelly”
In their foreword to the Press’s fall publication of The Essential Brendan Kennelly, Terrence Brown and Michael Longley write that “Kennelly’s poetry is instinctively sociable, hospitable as it is the lives, voices, deeds and defining deaths of a host of characters.” Textually, this quality of Kennelly’s work leaps off the page through Kennelly’s written shifts…
Continue ReadingArts & Culture
The cover art on The Wake Forest Series of Irish Poetry, Volume II to the casual observer may seem a tad too modernist or minimalist to garner any serious, long-term reflection. It could be say, a fork and a crumpled foil wrapper, or perhaps a field goal being kicked for those of us (yes, myself included)…
Continue ReadingU2: Brendan Kennelly’s Number One Fans
Like many Irish people, the poet Brendan Kennelly is a fan of the band U2. However, Kennelly has a leg up on his fellow U2 fans: the band is a fan of him. Kennelly is often called “the people’s poet” for his open, accessible style, (Dublin’s Sunday Tribune). Kennelly’s epic poem, The Book of Judas,…
Continue ReadingInterview with an Intern!
This past semester, our new intern Kelly Neubeiser had the opportunity to intern with Simon & Schuster in London. Today, Kelly sat down with us to discuss some of her experiences at S&S, and we realized that while these two publishers could not be any more dissimilar, there are some elements that this publishing powerhouse…
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week: “Bee Orchid” by Michael Longley
The weather in Winston-Salem today is beautiful. It’s warm and breezy, and one can in indulge in tricking him- or herself into believing that spring has come early on this fine day. Hoping to encourage this weather to stay (please!), we’ve chosen a poem from Michael Longley’s A Hundred Doors, wherein the imagery inspires visions…
Continue ReadingArts and Culture: Cover Art for McGuckian’s My Love Has Fared Inland
According to a review by Borbala Farago in The Irish University Review, Medbh McGuckian’s My Love Has Fared Inland takes up “familiar themes of creativity and spirituality” and the poems “trace an introspective trajectory” including themes of “death, writing, nature, and love.” Due to the diverse content of the book, it was important for Wake Forest University…
Continue ReadingConor O’Callaghan
Poet Conor O’Callaghan may best be known to fans of Wake Forest Press for his books of poetry such as Fiction and Seatown and Earlier Poems. He will also be editing our Wake Forest Series of Irish Poetry, Volume III, which will be released next year. However, did you know that he also wrote a memoir about the Roy…
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week: “Silences” by John Montague
This poem is from John Montague’s latest volume, due out in mid-April. It’s dedicated to his wife. Enjoy! Silences for Elizabeth 1 Poetry is a weapon, and should be used, though not in the crudity of violence. It is a prayer before an unknown altar, a spell to bless the silence. 2 There is a…
Continue ReadingA Lil Bit of Lit Crit: “The Copious Dark” by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin
In his November 2010 review of Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin’s The Sun-fish, William Logan of The New Criterion commented that “Ní Chuilleanáin loves this stillness, the timelessness of Ireland both passing and passed—stately, measured, the poems unfold in their own time, making very little concession to the reader. They’re full of material things, things with density…
Continue ReadingArts and Culture: O’Reilly Broadside
It’s easy to quickly glance at the image associated with Caitríona O’ Reilly’s poem “Octopus” and see the connection; the image is a direct representation of the title. It all seems pretty standard. However, as I delve deeper into the poem, I find that the illustrated octopus is not only strikingly apt, but is responsible…
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