Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin

Poem of the Week: “Rugă / Prayer” by Ileana Mălăncioiu

In today’s selection for National Translation Month, we are featuring a Romanian poem by Ileana Mălăncioiu, translated by Irish poet Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin in her collection titled Legend of the Walled-Up Wife. As Ní Chuilleanáin writes in the preface to the book, “Mălăncioiu’s writing is valued in Romania as a moral force. A courageous critic of the former…

Poem of the Week: “Jesse” by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin

Jesse As you lie in sleep there grows like a lung inflating A tree out of your navel, enlarging and toppling Into its perfection when the leaves and the fruit are soft as air, Are drenched like capillaries, and as they swell They become transparent and fade away: The true tree of knowledge which is…

Video Highlights from Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin’s Reading at Wake Forest

We began this glorious National Poetry Month with a visit from Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, who gave a reading at Wake Forest on April 4, 2016. As we near the end of April, we wanted to share some of the joys of that evening with you. Today we feature one of her poems from The Boys of Bluehill,  a…

Introducing: The Boys of Bluehill

Wake Forest University Press is proud to announce the arrival of Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin’s Boys of Bluehill. In her newest collection, Ní Chuilleanáin addresses the themes of music, religion, art, and language to create a beautiful union between revelatory imagery and an acute poetic sensibility. Of her work, Seamus Heaney remarked: “There is something second-sighted about Eiléan Ní Chulleanáin’s work….

The secret is out… Announcing our latest book, The Shack.

Today’s the day! It’s finally here! We’ve been waiting so long to tell you about our newest book, The Shack: Irish Poets in the Foothills and Mountains of the Blue Ridge, that it’s hard to believe we can finally talk about it. In The Shack, contemporary Irish poets reflect on their time in the foothills and mountains…

Happy birthday to Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin and Poem of the Week

Poem of the Week: “Snow” by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin

‘I thought of you then,’ she says, ‘flocking
On the edge of the same water —
The yearly walk by the banks–‘
As she stood by the calm water
And the snow kept faltering past,
And past the window where a man’s bare arm
Reaches for clothes and for matches.

Poem of the Week:”The Second Voyage” by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin

“Seascape” by John Fraser National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London       It’s easy to compare Odysseus’ voyage to the voyage students undertake in college; whether a senior, junior, sophomore or freshman, those spiteful waves will rock you all year long. We mimic Odysseus as we fight against tests, illness, papers and uncomfortable experiences, and all…

Poem of the Week: “Persephone Suffering from SAD” by Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill

Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill’s The Water Horse is a particular gem because of the collaboration of three great female Irish poets; Ní Dhomhnaill’s poems are in Irish, with English translations by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin and Medbh McGuckian. These poems present other convergences, particularly the mingling of mythology with modern life as in today’s poem.

Poem of the Week: “Calendar Custom” from The Sun-fish

Calendar Custom What is the right name of that small red flower? It’s everywhere, spilling down over the stones In the sun, every year at just this time. The colour dims for a minute as the line of dust Follows the loud white van uphill, and just now The girls in the bar offer me…

Daily Poem: “Bessboro” by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin

This is what I inherit—
It was never my own life,
But a house’s name I heard
And others heard as warning

Poem of the Day: The Door by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin

  The Door When the door opened the lively conversation Beyond it paused very briefly and then pushed on; There were sounds of departure, a railway station, Everyone talking with such hurried animation The voices could hardly be told apart until one Rang in a sudden silence: ‘The word when, that’s where you start’– Then…

“He feels no gravity at all”: Poem of the Day, “The Call Has Been Answered”

  “The Call Has Been Answered” by Ileana Mălăncioiu, translated from the Romanian by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin from The Legend of the Walled-Up Wife  The call has been answered, this sun Has risen over the green field. The soul unfolding as a snail Slides out of his enclosing shield He dawdles across the long empty Space…

‘Tis the season for Poetry Readings

Everyone knows that poetry is best when listened to, so kick back, relax and belatedly celebrate National Poetry Day with some readings from our poets. Conor O’Callaghan reading “January Drought” from his newest collection, The Sun King. WFUP will publish the North American edition in December. Conor will be reading from The Sun King at the…

“Legend of the Walled-up Wife” featured in “The Antioch Review”

The spring 2013 issue of The Antioch Review takes a thoughtful look at our recent volume, Legend of the Walled-up Wife, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin’s translations of Ileana Mălăncioiu’s poetry.  Written under the Ceaușescu regime, the book has dark, chilling imagery throughout and critic Benjamin S. Grossberg writes: “Mălăncioiu often blurs the line between life and death, creating the sense of…

A Reading by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin

Our very own Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin reads “The Polio Epidemic” from The Sun-fish.               Video courtesy of The Gallery Press Visit our website and order your copy of The Sun-fish today!

A Lil Bit of Lit Crit…

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 but…

Poem of the Week

“Studying the Language” by Eilean Ni Chuilleanain On Sundays I watch the hermits coming out of their holes Into the light. Their cliff is as full as a hive. They crowd together on warm shoulders of rock Where the sun has been shining, their joints crackle. They begin to talk after a while. I listen…

Did You Know…

We’re back! After weeks of working on redesigning our blog we have finally finished and are excited to post again. Today is the first in what will become a series of posts on little known facts about our poets. We will start with one of the poets who just joined us on our Women’s Anthology…