The literary world welcomed a new talent in September when the prestigious Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award was given to UCC librarian John Fitzgerald. A virtual unknown, having no previous publications, Fitzgerald was quoted in the Irish Times as saying, “I wasn’t into publishing anything, mainly because I did not think it was up to standard.” All that changed when his first … [Read more...] about Unpublished Poet Awarded Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Prize
Poetry
Review of Books
SHORT FICTION Belfast Noir Edited by Adrian McKinty & Stuart Neville Belfast, a city of conflicting allegiances and a dark and turbulent past, seems a perfect setting for Akashic’s latest “noir” anthology. Belfast Noir is presented as “an important snapshot” of the city’s burgeoning crime-writing community featuring stories from some of Ireland’s best-known crime writers … [Read more...] about Review of Books
Poem: “Soda Bread”
She said she’d lost the knack—not the recipe, which had never been written down— but the knack of mixing the dough just so, not too much, not too little, so that the moist, buttery loaves rose into their perfectly rounded shapes, the cross impressed in the top revealing itself as the crust hardened, sure as the Annunciation. It was because my father had … [Read more...] about Poem: “Soda Bread”
An Interview with Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney was awarded the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature "for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past." The first person from Northern Ireland to be so honored, Heaney was born on April 13, 1939, the eldest of nine children, to Margaret and Patrick Heaney, at the family farm in Mossbawn, County Derry. In his Nobel Prize … [Read more...] about An Interview with Seamus Heaney
Heaney Donates Letters to Emory
Seamus Heaney, Ireland's Nobel Prize-winning poet, is donating his papers and letters to Emory University in Atlanta. While Heaney's manuscripts will stay in Ireland, his letters and papers will further enrich Emory's impressive collection of Irish papers. Emory currently holds the correspondence, as well as manuscripts, of poets Michael Longley, James Simmons, Ciaran Carson … [Read more...] about Heaney Donates Letters to Emory