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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 ReadingWhen bad things happen to good books
To us, every box of newly-printed books that we receive at the Press is like a special gift opened under the Christmas tree. But from time to time, a box comes to us with minor or even major damage, and what are we to do? Why do bad things happen to good books? Unfortunately, we received a…
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 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://cdn.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 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 3 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…
Continue ReadingAbout Unpaid Internships…
Harper’s Bazaar intern who is suing Hearst because she claimed she was doing the work of a full time job and not receiving any pay (you can read more about the case here). Something I was unaware of is that there are six criteria that need to apply to every unpaid internship to ensure the intern is…
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 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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