News
Ciaran Carson, 1948–2019
It is with great sadness that we announce the death of one of our most esteemed poets, Ciaran Carson. Ciaran had been with us from the beginning, and we will miss him. Our hearts go out to his wife and children, Deirdre, Manus, Gerard, and Mary.
Continue ReadingWelcome WFU Press Interns!
The fall semester at Wake Forest is in full swing, a time of year we welcome heartily because it means we benefit from the new energy of our student interns as they begin their work with us. We have two returnees from last year and three new interns, all of whom have the gumption and…
Continue ReadingIt’s the WFU Press Holiday Sale!
We’re pleased to once again offer 40% off our books and other gifts through the holiday season. Use promo code “WFUP40” at check out.
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week: “A Glass of Water” by Conor O’Callaghan
I pour a glass of water for myself.
I watch what greys it gathers from the room.
It’s not to drink. I want the wanting of
a glass and water sleep can come between.
“Looser, Freer, and a Bit Wilder”: An Interview with Conor O’Callaghan
Conor O’Callaghan’s newest book of poetry Live Streaming has just been published in North America, and for months we’ve been anxiously awaiting this exciting release. O’Callaghan has been busy giving readings for the book, most recently here in the US, where he went coast to coast visiting five states in five days before returning home to England. WFU Press intern Maddie Baxter caught him via Skype at the tail-end of this trip to ask him a few questions about the book, his process, and the personal nature of this extraordinary new collection.
Continue ReadingA Montague Retrospective
In 1975 Wake Forest University Press began its Irish poetry program by co-publishing John Montague’s A Slow Dance with the Dolmen Press. Montague was a foundational poet for WFU Press, and we were lucky to have worked with him for more than forty years. In honor of the posthumous publication of A Spell to Bless the Silence, we offer this retrospective look at Montague’s books published in North America by WFU Press.
Continue ReadingIntroducing: Herod’s Dispensations by Harry Clifton, coming spring 2019
WFU Press is proud to announce the publication of Harry Clifton’s newest collection of poetry, Herod’s Dispensations. This collection, which meditates on the loss and protection of innocence, encompasses journeys from Dublin through northern China.
Continue ReadingEnter the Goodreads giveaway for Live Streaming!
We’re giving away copies of Conor O’Callaghan’s newest book, Live Streaming, on Goodreads now through Oct. 28! Don’t miss your chance; enter the Goodreads giveaway below.
Continue ReadingMeet our new interns
Each year, we are pleased to have the assistance of student interns. This year’s crop has been diligently at work for almost a month, and already they’ve helped with proofing, e-book formatting, social media marketing, audience research, and good ol’ mass mailing. Together, they comprise our merry band o’ interns, and we’re so grateful for their help. Here’s a little bit more about each of them.
Continue Reading20% off for National Poetry Month!
Use code NPM2018 at checkout
Continue ReadingLeontia Flynn wins Irish Times Poetry Now Award
This morning it was announced that Leontia Flynn has won the Irish Times Poetry Now Award for her newest volume, The Radio. From the Irish Times announcement: In making their choice, the judges noted “the variance and voracious excellence of new Irish poetry, in books which experimented with long poems, prose poems, biography and translation….
Continue ReadingNew Selection of John Montague’s Poetry To Be Published this Fall
WFU Press is glad to announce the publication of a new selection of John Montague’s work. A Spell to Bless the Silence: Selected Poems includes work from fourteen volumes written over more than fifty years. Undertaken by Montague and his wife, Elizabeth Wassell, prior to the poet’s death in December 2016, this new selection represents “not only…
Continue ReadingRichard Murphy, 1927–2018
It is with great sadness that Wake Forest University has learned of the poet Richard Murphy’s death. We were proud to be his American publisher, releasing The Price of Stone and Earlier Poems in 1985, The Mirror Wall in 1989, and his Collected Poems in 2001. As Michael Longley noted, “Richard Murphy continues to be a poet of…
Continue ReadingA Warm Celebration for WFU Press
View photos from our Housewarming Celebration on Nov. 3, 2017
Continue ReadingRemembering Gerard Fanning
Conor O’Callaghan remembers colleague and friend Gerard Fanning
Continue ReadingWake Forest University Press Gets a New Home
When Wake Forest University Press got started in 1975, our Founder Dillon Johnston ran the press out of his office in the English Department. As operations grew, we moved into Carswell Hall, and then later into the old bomb shelter in the basement of Tribble Hall. A bomb shelter seemed particularly appropriate for a poetry…
Continue ReadingA Very Kinetic National Poetry Month
National Poetry Month is the largest celebration of literature on the globe. The month of April is meant to encourage readers of all ages to engage with poetry in some way, to illuminate the important mark it has made on the cultures of so many peoples. The Academy of American Poets established NPM in 1996….
Continue ReadingIntroducing The Wake Forest Series of Irish Poetry, Volume IV
We are happy to announce that we’ll be publishing the next volume of The Wake Forest Series of Irish Poetry in March. This series brings lesser-known Irish voices to an American audience. In this fourth volume, editor David Wheatley, himself an established poet and critic, has selected poetry by Trevor Joyce, Aidan Mathews, Peter McDonald, Ailbhe Darcy,…
Continue ReadingJohn Montague, 1929–2016
It is with great sadness that Wake Forest University Press has learned of John Montague’s death. We have been honored to be his publisher these many years. We will miss his poetry, his humor, and his humanity.
Continue ReadingHoliday Sale: 40% off
Once again, we’re offering 40% off through the holiday season. To take advantage of the sale, order through our website (or call us at 336-758-5448), and enter the code “WFUP40” when you check out. The sale applies to books, broadsides, and t-shirts. Be sure to order by December 15 to guarantee the books reach your doorstep in time for Christmas.
Continue Reading“Mostly dark, with a chink of light”: Alan Gillis reflects on Scapegoat and Other Poems
Alan Gillis’s Scapegoat and Other Poems launched on October 1st. To celebrate, WFU Press interns Fahad Rahmat and Rachel Stewart asked Gillis about his influences, religion’s redemptive impulse, how he sees current society and pop culture, and plenty more. WFU Press: Throughout Scapegoat, the reader encounters words like “fugging” and “pizz-popping, jingle-jangle”—sounds which you’ve incorporated into the…
Continue ReadingVideo 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…
Continue ReadingVideo Highlights from Ciaran Carson’s Wake Forest Reading
Ciaran Carson recently visited Wake Forest University and gave an enchanting reading on campus. He read from his latest collection, From Elsewhere, and played traditional Irish tunes with his wife, fiddler Deirdre Shannon. Watch the video highlights from this wonderful evening!
Continue ReadingWake Up to Poetry blog going on hiatus
You may have noticed that we’ve slowed down our posts on this blog. That’s because, we’re happy to announce, we’ve been busy working on updates to our website and blog! We’re briefly putting this blog to sleep for the summer, in hopes that our new and improved website and blog will be up and running…
Continue ReadingPoem 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…
Continue ReadingIndependent Bookstore Day
May 2nd marks the first annual Independent Bookstore Day, a holiday that makes us happy down to our book-lovin’ souls. Small publishers and independent bookstores go together like bread and butter. The idea to celebrate small, independent bookstores came about after the success of last year’s California Bookstore Day. Looking to expand the celebration outside of…
Continue ReadingIntroducing: 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….
Continue ReadingIt’s No Joke! April 1st Kicks Off National Poetry Month
April marks the beginning of National Poetry Month! While poetry can and should be celebrated all year round, this is the “official” month to celebrate poetry in all of its various forms. Literary geeks around the country will soon participate in another annual National Poetry Month, which was first founded in 1996 by the Academy of American…
Continue ReadingIt’s University Press Week
Yesterday marked the commencement of the third annual, week-long celebration of university presses. From November 9th through the 15th, the Association of American University Presses (AAUP) hosts what is affectionately known as University Press Week. Events include a blog tour and collaborative projects gallery. As the AAUP website explains, this week exists not only to recognize…
Continue ReadingThe Stairwell cover release
We are delighted to share a teaser image of the cover from our upcoming release, Michael Longley’s tenth collection, The Stairwell. The cover’s aesthetic evokes a Greek vase, featuring an earthy color scheme, scroll work and, most prominently, an illustration by the poet’s daughter, Sarah Longley. The illustration is a copy of a similar image from…
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week, with congrats to Conor O’Callaghan
I wanted his sky-blue Ford, its sheetrock, its transmission issues.
I listened to his low-down yodelling skimming sunk studs
and snake rattles like wind chimes round his mantle in the hills
and parables waiting for windows to arrive where some lunchbox
was always asked what sort of lunchbox he took Roy for.
The “perfect acoustic” of The Stairwell
Few moments are more exciting at the Press than when we are getting started on a new book. This fall, we’ll publish Michael Longley’s tenth collection, The Stairwell, and preparations are well underway. We’ve done a first read, gathered the cover image and copy, and sent files off to the designer. The title of the book comes from the…
Continue ReadingIreland ranks 1st in “Good Country Index”
Today, Ireland was ranked #1 on a new report called the Good Country Index, released by British policy advisor Simon Anholt. And what makes a Good Country, you ask? The Index measures how countries contribute to the planet and the human race. Ireland ranked within the top 10 in four of the seven categories, securing…
Continue ReadingIt’s hot outside—get yourself a T-shirt
Oh, how we miss our interns! At least we have our t-shirts for company. . . The weather’s warming up, and our interns have all left for the summer. Heading into the dog days, the Press gets more and more deserted and we find that we have to enjoy whatever company we can find. Wherever…
Continue ReadingMacNeice poem inspires Scottish song
Louis MacNeice is one of the inspirations for the Scottish group, Battlefield Band. MacNeice’s poem, “Bagpipe Music,” provides the lyrics for the song on the group’s newest album Room Enough for All, which has been nominated for an Independent Music Award in the category of “World Traditional Song.” You can read the poem just below, buy MacNeice’s Collected Poems here, and…
Continue ReadingPaula 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…
Continue ReadingPoetry 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…
Continue ReadingThese words are made for walking
A daily dose of poetry is just what the Wake Forest campus needs. Our interns have been busy chalking lines of poetry all over campus. Students stopped, read, and asked, “What is this for?”
Continue ReadingPoetryFest
Over the weekend, the Irish Arts Center in New York City hosted its 5th annual PoetryFest. Contemporary Irish poets including our own Conor O’Callaghan, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, and Colette Bryce (from the Wake Forest Series 3) all read poetry at this event. We are delighted to be publishing O’Callaghan’s new book, The Sun King, later this year.
Continue ReadingVona Groarke in The New Yorker
Landscape – Kongevejen near Gentofte by Vilhelm Hammershøi The November 11 issue of The New Yorker features Vona Groarke’s poem “The Landscapes of Vilhelm Hammershøi.” Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864-1916) was a Danish painter best known for his low-key, soft portraits and interiors. Enigmatic and secretive, his paintings were described as “highly traditional, but also distinctively modern”…
Continue ReadingNuala Ní Dhomhnaíll featured on passport
Ireland revealed its new passport design on Monday, and people are talking. The majority of the media hype revolves around the borderless map of Ireland on page three. The map’s subtle disregard of Ireland’s political north-south divide in favour of the topographical depiction of the island as a whole is meant to emphasize citizenship over territoriality, a spokesman…
Continue ReadingEndings and Beginnings
This past week, Harry Clifton gave his final lecture as Ireland Professor of Poetry, marking the end of his three year appointment to the post. Soon, Clifton will step down to make way for the newly-announced Paula Meehan, who will be the sixth poet to take the position. Clifton spent one year at Queen’s University…
Continue ReadingHappy Belated Birthday Conor O’Callaghan
“I toast my new age. I drink its tongue-roll, its wheel-whirr, on the road to Montecarlo. Quarantaquattro, quarantaquattro, quarantaquattro …” Conor O’Callaghan turned 45 on September 20th. All of us here at Wake Forest University Press toast Conor as he embarks on quarantecinque. The quote above is from The Pearl Works, a collection of 52…
Continue ReadingSpeaking Out for the Small Press
Publishing is a constantly changing industry. Every day, new ideas rise out of companies, expertly crafted to improve customer experience, to make book buying simpler. New technology is pushed to the forefront and heralded as the future of publishing; soon, as it is prophecized over and over, all publishers will be using ebooks and turning…
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week, plus Paula Meehan’s Appointment as Ireland Professor of Poetry
The View from Under the Table was the best view and the table itself kept the sky from falling. The world was fringed with red velvet tassels; whatever play ran in that room the tablecloth was curtains for. I was the audience. Listen to me laughing. Listen to me weeping. I was a child. What…
Continue ReadingFingers Crossed for Harry Clifton!
We’re delighted that Harry Clifton has been nominated for the Irish Times Poetry Now Award for 2013. Clifton is nominated for The Winter Sleep of Captain Lemass; he previously won this most prestigious award in 2008 for Secular Eden. Winners will be announced on Sept 7. Stay tuned for the results! –Megan Latta
Continue ReadingThe Wake Forest Series of Irish Poetry, Volume III, Launches in Paris
The Paris launch earlier this month included readings by the anthology’s featured poets, an appearance by Conor O’Callaghan, Volume III editor and author of the forthcoming book The Sun King, 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…
Continue ReadingKennelly to Collaborate with Daughter on Authorized Biography
Evincing a bit of the good-humored aplomb for which he’s long enjoyed a reputation as a people’s poet among his Irish readership, Brendan Kennelly quipped that he’d “have to throw myself around in the sea in Ballybunion to shock my childhood memories back.” Kennelly and daughter Doodle will reportedly begin work on the biography next…
Continue ReadingOur New Website Is Live
At long last, and after much blood, sweat, and data-entry, we’ve finally launched our new website! Check it out at http://wfupress.wfu.edu/, where you’ll find an updated product catalogue, a streamlined order and payment system, a general aesthetic facelift, and links to our Facebook and Twitter pages.
Continue ReadingWake: Up to Poetry Reading and Celebration
If you weren’t able to make it to our Wake: Up to Poetry reading and celebration last month, you’re in luck. Thanks to The Wake Forest Interdisciplinary Performance and Liberal Arts Center (iPLACe) and the Wake Forest Documentary Film Program, we now have this lovely video of highlights from the event. We hope you enjoy…
Continue ReadingHistoric Photograph Featuring Louis MacNeice Up for Grabs
Literary Giants: From left, Louis MacNeice, T.S. Eliot, Ted Hughes, W.H. Auden and Stephen Spender at Faber and Faber publishing party If you’re looking to be the owner of a rare literary moment in history, look no further! This iconic photograph shows the five men congregating at a party organized by their publisher, Faber and Faber….
Continue ReadingWake Up to Poetry Celebration: A WFU Press’ Intern’s Reflection
The intermingling of poetry and Irish music created an atmosphere of captivation, reflection, and joy. This past Saturday night marked Wake Forest University Press’ first Wake Up to Poetry Celebration. In honor of National Poetry Month, WFUP collected student submissions, receiving more than 50 poems. The submissions were then evaluated by award-winning poets, Adrian Rice,…
Continue ReadingCiaran Carson to Read at UGA on April 10th
One of WFUP’s most distinguished poets, Ciaran Carson, will be reading selections of his work at the University of Georgia this week, on Wednesday, April 10, 2013 at 7 PM. The university is hosting the 2013 Atlantic Archipelagos Research Project, and Carson’s reading will be a feature of the welcome ceremony. The event reflects on elements…
Continue ReadingMichael Longley to Read at Cúirt International Festival of Literature
WFUP’s esteemed poet, Michael Longley, will be reading selections of his work on the opening night of the Cúirt International Festival of Literature. Longley’s most recent publication A Hundred Doors won the 2011 Irish Times Poetry Now Award, and he is also the recipient of the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry, the Hawthornden Prize and the T.S. Eliot Prize,…
Continue ReadingA 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 ReadingPraise for Michael Longley
Recently, The Boston Globe named Michael Longley’s A Hundred Doors as one of the best poetry books of 2011. “This year Wake Forest University Press has delivered A Hundred Doors by Irish poet Michael Longley, who has yet to receive the American acclaim surrounding many of his contemporaries. In this collection, readers are transported to…
Continue ReadingJohn Montague receives honorary doctorate from University College Dublin
John Montague was one of five holders of the Ireland Chair of Poetry to receive an honorary doctorate from University College Dublin on Bloomsday. Brian Donnelly, of the UCD School of English, Drama & Film, spoke of how Montague’s poetry reflects the passion and determination of the Irish. “… It has been his vocation to…
Continue ReadingPoetry & Music
Ireland has given us many pleasures, poetry and music among them. The only thing better than Irish music or poetry is an Irish poem sung in a song. Irish Folk singer Christy Moore has done just that with the title track off his latest album, “Folk Tale,” written by Irish poet Paula Meehan. Moore tells…
Continue ReadingDid 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…
Continue ReadingA Hundred Doors
Michael Longley’s new book A Hundred Doors is already getting rave reviews! Check out this great article in The Guardian about his latest book. And here’s a sneak peak at one of the poems: A Hundred Doors God! I’m lighting candles again, still the sentimental atheist, family Names a kind of prayer or poem, my…
Continue ReadingWake 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…
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