Three Irish Poets

Poetry Book Society Special Commendation
In this radical anthology the work of three of Ireland's most important and best-loved contemporary poets is featured. Each has, in a different way, cleared new creative space to speak and to sing.
The anthology makes an essential selection of some forty pages from the work of the poets. Each contributes a short personal statement, and there is a bibliography. Eavan Boland introduces the book with a major new essay.
EAVAN BOLAND was born in Dublin in 1944. She studied in Ireland, London and New York. Her first book was published in 1967. She is Melvin and Bill Lane Professor in the Humanities at Stanford University, California. Her Carcanet books include Selected Poems, Collected Poems, The Lost Land, Code, and her prose book Object Lessons.
PAULA MEEHAN was born in 1955 in Dublin. She studied at Trinity College and became a Writer Fellow of the English Department, and has taught in the United States. She has written plays and held a creative writing fellowship at University College, Dublin. She has worked with inner city communities and conducted workshops in prisons. Carcanet published Dharmakaya, her most recent book of poems, in 2000. The Man Who Was Marked by Winter (1991) and Pillow Talk (1994) were published by Gallery Press.
MARY O'MALLEY, born in Galway in 1954, has travelled widely but returned to Ireland to become part of the Cuirt Festival committee. She is a member of the Poetry Council for Ireland. Her previous collections include Where the Rocks Float (1993), The Knife in the Wave (1997) and Asylum Road (2001) published by Salmon Poetry, and The Boning Hall (2002) published by Carcanet.

Born in Dublin in 1944, Eavan Boland studied in Ireland, London and New York. Her first book was published in 1967. She taught at Trinity College, University College Dublin, Bowdoin College in Maine, and at the University of Iowa. She was Mabury Knapp Professor in the Humanities at Stanford University, California. A pioneering figure in Irish poetry, Boland's works include The Historians (2020), which won the Costa Poetry Award 2020 and was a 2020 Book of the Year in the TLS, Guardian, Sunday Independent and Irish Times, The Journey and other poems (1987), Night Feed (1982), The Lost Land (1998) and Code (2001). Her poems and essays appeared in magazines such as The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Kenyon Review and American Poetry Review. She was a regular reviewer for the Irish Times. She divided her time between California and Dublin where she lived with her husband, the novelist Kevin Casey. Eavan died in Dublin on 27th April 2020. Paula Meehan was born in Dublin where she still lives. She was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and at Eastern Washington University. She has published five previous collections of poetry and received many awards for her work including the Denis Devlin Award of the Irish Arts Council (An Chonthairle Ealafon) for Dharmakaya, which Carcanet published in 2000. She has also written plays - for stage (for both children and adults) and for radio - and held a creative writing fellowship at University College, Dublin.Meehan has worked with inner city communities and conducted workshops in prisons. Mary O'Malley was born in Connemara in Ireland and educated at University College Galway. She lived in Lisbon for eight years and taught at Universidade Nova. She served on the council of Poetry Ireland and was on the Committee of the Cúirt International Poetry Festival for eight years. She was the author of its educational programme. She taught on the MA programmes for Writing and Education in the Arts at NUI Galway for ten years, held the Chair of Irish Studies at Villanova University in 2013, and has held Residencies in Paris, Tarragona, New York, NUI Galway, as well as in Derry, Belfast. She is deeply committed to education and the preservation of marine life and culture and is active in environmental education. She is a member of Aosdána and has won a number of awards for her poetry, including the 2016 Arts Council University of Limerick Writer's Fellowship and the 2018 Michael Hartnett Poetry Award for Playing the Octopus (2016). She was the Trinity Writer Fellow at the Oscar Wilde Centre for 2019. She writes and broadcasts for RTÉ Radio regularly. She spends time in Paris and Spain and lives in the West of Ireland. Visit Mary O'Malley's website. Born in Dublin in 1944, Eavan Boland studied in Ireland, London and New York. Her first book was published in 1967. She taught at Trinity College, University College Dublin, Bowdoin College in Maine, and at the University of Iowa. She was Mabury Knapp Professor in the Humanities at Stanford University, California. A pioneering figure in Irish poetry, Boland's works include The Historians (2020), which won the Costa Poetry Award 2020 and was a 2020 Book of the Year in the TLS, Guardian, Sunday Independent and Irish Times, The Journey and other poems (1987), Night Feed (1982), The Lost Land (1998) and Code (2001). Her poems and essays appeared in magazines such as The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Kenyon Review and American Poetry Review. She was a regular reviewer for the Irish Times. She divided her time between California and Dublin where she lived with her husband, the novelist Kevin Casey. Eavan died in Dublin on 27th April 2020.