Irish Women’s Poetry

Poem of the Week: “Melusine” by Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill

This week’s poem comes from Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill’s most recent volume, The Fifty Minute Mermaid, a selection of which was included in The Wake Forest Book of Irish Women’s Poetry. Ní Dhomhnaill’s narrative poem, “Melusine,” is based on folklore most famously captured by the 14th century French writer Jean d’Arras. In the tale, Count Raymondin meets the…

Poem of the Week: “Glaciers” by Sinéad Morrissey

As we approach our publication date for Volume IV of The Wake Forest Series of Irish Poetry, we continue with poetry from previous volumes. This week’s poem by Sinéad Morrissey can be found in Volume I. The simple language reflects the naturalistic and somewhat sinister undertones of the poem, which highlight the connection between humanity, earth,…

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…

“Where language fades into cries or whispers”: An Interview with Medbh McGuckian

Medbh McGuckian’s new selected, The Unfixed Horizon, contains over 130 poems from 13 collections. In honor of its publication, McGuckian talked to WFU Press interns Alex Muller and Shannon Magee about the concoction of angels, controlling the flow of time, and the virtue of poetry’s gentle intellect.

Poem of the Week: “The Sofa” by Medbh McGuckian

It’s been nearly two decades since we published the last selection of Medbh McGuckian’s work, and in that time she has written eight more volumes. Needless to say, it was time to re-visit this poet’s remarkable ouevre. Over the last several months as we prepared The Unfixed Horizon: New Selected Poems, it’s been a true…

Poem of the Week: “Clotho” by Caitríona O’Reilly

It’s publication week for Caitríona O’Reilly’s new volume Geis (available now in print, iBook, and Kindle editions). This week’s featured poem is a sneak peek into this wonderful book. For more on O’Reilly’s inspiration, writing process, and more, check out our Q&A with the poet. Happy reading, poetry lovers! Clotho after Camille Claudel And in the end it was…

“It felt like a breaking of some taboo I’d placed myself under”: Caitríona O’Reilly on writing Geis

Caitríona O’Reilly’s Geis was published in 2015, and in honor of its publication, WFU Press interns Shannon Magee and Alex Muller asked her about her influences, her writing process, and the relationship between science, myth, and poetry.

Introducing Geis by Caitríona O’Reilly

In her third collection of poetry, Caitríona O’Reilly presents a cabinet of curiosities, landscapes ranging from Iceland to Iowa, and a cast of characters including Jackson Pollock, Camille Claudel, and Clint Eastwood. Moving between the scientific and the supernatural, O’Reilly is consistently sharp with language that is Latinate, tactile, and intuitive, what Michael Longley has…

Poem of the Week: “For Sheila” by Máire Mhac an tSaoi

I remember a room on the seaward side—
The squall caught it from the south-west—
And rain a tattoo on the window
Unslackening since the fall of night,

Poem of the Week: “We Change the Map” by Kerry Hardie

Our apologies for the brief hiatus on our blog. We’ve been busy sending off four of our interns who graduated last week. A big thank you to all our interns for the hours of proofing, box schlepping, blogging, designing, phone calling, reading, chalking, and merriment you so kindly gave to WFU Press this year. Post-graduation, we…

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….

A festive celebration for WFU Press

In the U.S., there’s no better day to celebrate Irish heritage and our connections with Ireland than St. Patrick’s Day. Green rivers, cheesy shamrock hats, and buckets o’ Guinness aside, we’re always happy to advocate for the rich Irish culture that exists in our country. This year, we’ve been celebrating with the publication of a very special and unique book…

Poem of the Week: “The Finder has Become the Seeker” by Medbh McGuckian

We are looking forward to spring coming just around the corner, though a thick layer of new snow is just starting to melt outside. The play of language in today’s poem, Medbh McGuckian’s “The Finder has Become the Seeker,” offers images of resurrection, extraction and emergence that ultimately gives the reader a feeling of hope. The Finder has…

Picking a Poem for Ireland

Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), Ireland’s National Public Service Broadcaster, is currently promoting a campaign called A Poem for Ireland. This contest began in September when RTÉ asked followers to submit stand-out poems from the past century that encapsulated the Irish experience. With their nominations, followers submitted explanations for why their favorite should earn the recognition. Over…

Poem of the Week: “Swallows and Willows”

In Dharmakaya, Paula Meehan creates a beautiful poem, highlighting the parallels between her own Irish voice, and the voice of one of America’s most commemorated female poets–Sylvia Plath. February 11th marks the 52nd anniversary of Plath’s death, and we love the fact that this poem creates a space where the haunting, feminine poetics of two of our favorite writers…

Poem of the Week: “Nouns and Verbs”

One thing we love here at the Press is words—both in Irish and English. Vona Groarke’s “Nouns and Verbs” celebrates the love of choosing just the right word.

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: “Closed Bells” by Medbh McGuckian

As we transition into winter, Medbh McGuckian’s frosty poem Closed Bells reminds us of the fast-dropping temperatures. Her fleshed out, frostbitten images offer the characteristic “wordlessness” for which McGuckian is best known and create a dream world suspended in the mid-season chill. Closed Bells Frost hollows small areas of leaf in gardenless margins. Wounded by the thought of nests expanding, they inspire devotion…

What does Ireland’s official Professor of Poetry do?

In September of last year, WFU Press’s very own poet, Paula Meehan, was appointed to serve as Ireland’s newest Professor of Poetry. This prestigious position, which is Ireland’s equivalent to the U.S. Poet Laureate, was founded by an independent Board of Trustees in response to Seamus Heaney’s 1995 win of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Of the six individuals (including…

Poem of the Week: “Airports” by Leontia Flynn

It’s Homecoming week at Wake Forest, so we have selected a poem for today which reflects on the liminality of travel. We wish a safe journey to all alumni making their way back toward their alma maters, be it via skyways or highways. Airports Airports are their own peculiar weather. Their lucid hallways ring like swimming pools. From each sealed lounge, a…

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: “Pier” by Vona Groarke

Only a few weeks remain before students return to campus, and our hottest days seem to be behind us. As we desperately hang on to summer, we offer Vona Groarke’s poem, “Pier,” as a celebration of the freedom and elan that summertime allows. Pier Speak to our muscles of a need for joy.      …

Poem of the Week: Caitriona O’Reilly’s “Sleep and Spiders”

We are looking forward to kicking off next year’s publishing calendar with Caitríona O’Reilly’s newest volume. But since it’ll be many months until we can share those poems with you, we chose one of her poems from The Wake Forest Series of Irish Poetry, Volume I. As the editor of that volume writes, O’Reilly’s voice is “consistently…

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…

Poem of the Week: “Not Weeding” by Paula Meehan

Nettle, bramble, shepherd’s purse –
refugees from the building site
that was once the back field,

Poem of the Week: Away

Away We have our own smallholding: persimmon tree, crawl space, stoop, red earth basement, ceiling fans, a job. Hours I’m not sure where I am, flitting through every amber between Gales and Drumcliffe Road. I paint woodwork the exact azure of a wave’s flipside out the back of Spiddal pier and any given morning pins…

The End of the Line

The temperature is high, the pollen is present, and graduation is just around the corner. However, with the arrival of springtime blossoms comes the departure of most of our staff. Interns Nicole, Maura, Amanda, Julie and Mike are all graduating, and Candide is retiring from Assistant Director. And while I feel inclined to use the…

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: Paula Meehan’s “The Lost Children of the Inner City”

“The Lost Children of the Inner City” History Lesson We read our city like an open book— who was taken and what was took. Spelt out in brick and mortar, a history lesson for every mother’s daughter. Who owns which and who owns what? The devil owns the bleeding lot! By National Library of Ireland…

Poem of the day: Kerry Hardie’s “Ship of Death”

After an unexpected Easter Monday hiatus, we have returned with another poem for National Poetry Month. We hope you enjoy “Ship of Death” by Kerry Hardie from The Wake Forest Book of Irish Women’s Poetry for my mother Watching you, for the first time, turn to prepare your boat, my mother; making it clear you have…

National Poetry Month – “What Does ‘Early’ Mean?”

“What Does ‘Early’ Mean?” by Medbh McGuckian  Happy house across the road My eighteen-inch deep study of you Is like a chair carried out into the garden, And back again because the grass is wet. Yet I think winter has ended Privately in you, and lies in half-asleep, Of her last sleep, at the foot…

Poem of the Day: Hotel by Medbh McGuckian

  Hotel I think the detectable difference between winter and summer is a damsel who requires saving, a heroine half- asleep and measurably able to hear but hard to see, like the spaces between the birds when I turn back to the sky for another empty feeling I would bestow on her a name with a…

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…

Poem of the Day: “Be Someone” by Rita Ann Higgins

In honor of National Poetry Month, WFU will be posting a poem a day for the entire month of April. Today’s poem is “Be Someone” by Rita Ann Higgins, a working class Irish poet and playwright. Her work can be found in the Wake Forest Book of Irish Women’s Poetry. “Be Someone” by Rita Ann Higgins from…

Poetry Month:”Scar” by Moya Cannon

“Scar” by Moya Cannon Why does it affect and comfort me the little scar where, years ago, you cut your lip shaving when half drunk and in a hurry to play drums in public. We step now to rhythms we don’t own or understand, and, with blind, dog-like diligence, we hunt for scars in tender…

Poetry Month with Paula Meehan

It’s our favourite month of the year: April! …also known as National Poetry Month. Our campus stalls have already been graced with “potty poetry,” and we will continue celebrating online by posting even more poetry than usual. To start with, here is an enlightening poem about changing times and weary souls. Nomad Heart by Paula Meehan…

Paula Meehan touring United States

Wake Forest University Press poet and  current Ireland Professor of Poetry, Paula Meehan, has been charming audiences in the United States on her current reading tour. Earlier in March, Meehan appeared at HoCoPoLitSo’s Thirty-Sixth Annual Evening of Irish Music and Poetry. And on Thursday, April 3, Meehan will be reading at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York. The reading…

Poem of the Week: “Finit” by Maire Mhac an tSaoi

  Finit Le seans a chuala uathu scéala an chleamhnais Is b’ait liom srian le héadroime na gaoithe— Do bhís chomh hanamúil léi, chomh domheabhartha, Chomh fiáin léi, is chomh haonraic, mar ba chuimhin liom. Féach feasta go bhfuil dála cháich i ndán duit, Cruatan is coitinne, séasúr go céile, Ag éalú i ndearúd le…

The Miraculous Máire Mhac an tSaoi

Wake Forest Press will publish The Miraculous Parish, a bilingual volume of Máire Mhac an tSaoi’s poetry this May. An activist and visionary, Mhac an tSaoi has paved the way for such female literary giants as Eavan Boland, Medbh McGuckian, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, and Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill. The Miraculous Parish solidifies her reputation as the…

Poem of the Week: “An fuath”/”Hatred”from Máire Mhac an tSaoi’s ‘The Miraculous Parish’

The latest manuscript we’ve been working on in the press is Máire Mhac an tSaoi’s The Miraculous Parish.  This book will feature poems written in Irish by Mhac an tSaoi, and translated by other poets into English. Here’s a sneak preview of one of her poems, written for a political cabaret in New York organized by…

“Seed” by Paula Meehan

Beautiful poem about winter’s end and the rebirth that springs ushers in.

Medbh McGuckian speaks about The High Caul Cap: “the cap is an end and a beginning”

In today’s Irish Echo, Peter McDermott interviews Medbh McGuckian on identity, inspiration, Seamus Heaney, and why she reads books upside down. McDermott’s article offers a glimpse into the poet’s thoughts behind her most recent book, The High Caul Cap, which WFUP published this past autumn. Here’s a link to the interview: McGuckian speaks candidly, revealing that the crux of the volume…

Poetry By Heart

Earlier this week, the Poetry Book Society (UK) announced that Sinéad Morrissey is the winner of the TS Eliot Poetry Prize. We published Morrissey in our first Wake Forest Series of Irish Poetry and The New North: Contemporary Poetry from Northern Ireland. The Independent asks  Morrissey if she is in favor of students in school learning poetry by…

Book of the Month: Paula Meehan’s “Painting Rain”

For November, the book of the month is Painting Rain, the 2009 collection of poetry from Paula Meehan. Painting Rain is full of sadness, and death, and memory; images of the present are wrapped up with the past. This is a book about how things change, will always change, will never remain the same. In…

Maura Holding Máire

……. …………………………………………………………………………………………….. We have just begun work on An paróiste míorúilteach/The Miraculous Parish, a book of selected poems by Irish language poet Máire Mhac an tSaoi. The first time we worked with her was for our Wake Forest Series of Irish Poetry Volume 2, and we are honored and delighted to work with her again. This…

A Sort of Homecoming

There is something special about returning to a place that you call home, whether it is a childhood memory, a small town left many years ago, or even a country returned to after being abroad. It is the feeling of familiarity tinged with change; something is different even though so much remains in tact. Maybe…

‘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…

Dream Language

”                          …you swim from core state to fugue state in undirected milky water to a black-filled circle, which is your fully fledged city dwindled into a village” —          from “Broken Pot Used as Writing Material” Here at WFU Press we’re busy with the final…

Today’s Lit. Crit.

Milk Could he have known that any stranger’s baby crying out loud in a street can start the flow? A stain that spreads on fustian or denim. This is kindness which in all our human time has refused to learn propriety, which still knows nothing but the depth of kinship, the depth of thirst. -Moya…

Poem of the Week — “On Cutting One’s Finger While Reaching for Jasmine” by Medbh McGuckian

(photo from flowersreview.blogspot.com ) “On Cutting One’s Finger While Reaching for Jasmine” She talked about the aboutness of life, the eternal false illumination of the leftover nights, her lavender- skirted self who paced around the tousled bedroom, the otherwise good you. She incessantly made Os, Os of all sizes, Os inside one another, always drawn backwards in…

The Wake Forest Series of Irish Poetry, Volume 3 Launches in Paris

The Paris launch earlier this month included readings by the anthology’s featured poets, an appearance by Volume 3 editor and author of the forthcoming book The Sun King Conor O’Callaghan, 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…

“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…

Poem of the Week — “Love Song” by Sinéad Morrissey

What does love look like to you? Love Song I see light everywhere Over the bus driver the woman With her trolley in the street I see dusk I hear the clock at four I hear the silence in cupboards Birdsong Backwater dawn I taste drier than flour I smell the roots of trees Before…

Happy World Poetry Day!!

Today, all of us a Wake Forest University Press hope you’re enjoying World Poetry Day!! Our internet community has been helping us celebrate in many ways. First, we’re excited to see that The Poetry Project for poetry and art from Ireland has recently added a new project inspired by Paula Meehan’s “My Father Perceived as…

Poem of the Week — “Again” by Kerry Hardie

This poem by Kerry Hardie is from the Wake Forest Book of Irish Women’s Poetry. The best part of Winter is knowing that Spring must come “again,” and the bad weather and cold temperatures must come to an end. Today on March 1st, we say, “Here’s to Spring!” Again Spring comes roundly, as the round…

Poem of the Week — “Ceist na Teangan” by Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill

This week has been a pretty exciting one for everyone involved in publishing and literary studies here at Wake Forest. After two years of planning, the University is finally hosting its “Words Awake!” celebration of Wake Forest writers! The three day event will focus on recognizing the achievements of Wake Forest writers past and present while also…

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…

Imagine Ireland

As I know most of you know, the Women’s Anthology Tour is approaching quickly. The tour is sponsored in part by Imagine Ireland, which I knew next to nothing about until i decided to Google it. What I found was pretty cool and definitely interesting. Here’s the summation of what it is, taken from their…

Elusive Poets

Searching for criticism on our awesome Irish poets featured in our new Women’s Anthology is turning out to be a lot harder than we thought. Using broad terms in databases that would normally generate hundreds of hits are instead only offering a few articles.  As good as we college students are with the internet, Irish…

Calling all Female Irish Artists

After what seemed like ages of proofreading the manuscript for the second edition of our Anthology of Irish Women’s Poetry, we sent the text to our designer yesterday. With a click of the send button, every person in the office breathed a collective sigh of relief. We had a brief moment of celebration, but our…

Wake Forest Book of of Irish Women’s Poetry

We are so excited for our new Women’s Anthology—which is not unexpected, we know how great it’s going to be given the hours upon hours we labor over fada placement and typos. Here at the press we are thrilled to announce our 2011 Women’s Anthology Tour, which will be in October in conjunction with the…