Tagged: “Medbh McGuckian”
Poem of the Week: “The Elsewhere Empire” by Medbh McGuckian
Medbh McGuckian’s “The Elsewhere Empire,” from her new collection The Thankless Paths to Freedom (2024), explores the emotional and physical spaces that loss often occupies. She writes, “there is no after the war, the rain of an earlier day, / the balmy elsewhere of winglets past the flowers // in their rifles.” When a loved one…
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week: “Ten Day Window” by Medbh Mcguckian
In her poem “Ten Day Window,” Medbh McGuckian creates a dream-like landscape, transporting the reader through the imagery of gardens, theaters, and ballrooms. McGuckian’s poem is deeply introspective, reckoning with themes of identity and public appearance while using fragmented moments to piece together an understanding of self. “Ten Day Window” is a part of…
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week: “Winter Beachhead” by Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill
This is the starkest hour of the shore
when it’s purged and cleansed as a Sabbath door.
There’s a brim of lather when the tide’s in
as the waves go on with their day’s washing.
Radio Signals: An interview with Leontia Flynn
Leontia Flynn’s The Radio is out this month, so WFU Press interns gathered to ask the poet more about her newest collection. Written in three sections, The Radio explores the boundaries of home and family life from Flynn’s experience caring for her infant child, to coping with her father’s death, to remembering the influence of…
Continue ReadingPoem 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.
Continue ReadingThe 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…
Continue ReadingMedbh 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…
Continue Reading