In Writing Home: The 'New Irish' Poets, more than 50 poets from all over the world explore the many meanings and connotations of the word 'home'. Hailing from places as diverse as India and Italy, Poland and Pakistan, Canada and the Democratic Republic of the Congo - as well as the US, the UK and Ireland itself - together they present an updated picture of a changing country while, at the same time, expanding the very definition of 'writing from Ireland'. The poems gathered here are as various and lively as we might hope for. Some contributors might be said to 'write home' in the traditional sense, describing and explaining what they find in the place they now live; for others 'writing home' is a determined, creative act of self-definition. For all of them there is the real sense that writing is itself a kind of home-building, not least at a time when so many borders, physical and psychological, are under threat of closure across the world.

A fresh, accessible and authoritative study that conveys the richness and diversity of Irish poets, their lives and times.

While the Irish Literary Revival began around 1885 and ended somewhere between 1925 and 1940, the Irish Renaissance has continued to the present day and shows no sign of abating. The period has produced some of the most important and influential figures in Irish literature, some of whom are counted among the world's greatest authors. The Revival saw a reestablishment of Ireland's literary connections with its Celtic heritage, and writers such as William Butler Yeats and Lady Gregory drew heavily on the myths and legends of the past. James Joyce boldly reshaped the novel and wrote short fiction of enduring value. Contemporary Irish writers continue to be leading figures and include such authors as Brian Frigl, Seamus Heaney, and Eavan Boland. Included in this reference book are alphabetically arranged entries for more than 70 modern Irish writers, including Samuel Beckett, William Trevor, Patrick Kavanagh, Medbh McGuckian, Sean O'Casey, J. M. Synge, and Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill. Entries are written by expert contributors and reflect a broad range of perspectives. Each entry contains a brief biography that summarizes the author's career, a discussion of major works and themes, an overview of the author's critical reception, and a bibliography of primary and secondary works. An introductory essay reviews the large and growing body of scholarship on modern Irish literature, while an extensive bibliography concludes the volume.

Traces the history of twentieth century Irish poetry and examines the Irish literary tradition

This original study focusing on four Irish writers – Leslie Daiken, Charles Donnelly, Ewart Milne and Michael Sayers – retrieves a hitherto neglected episode of Thirties literary history which highlights the local and global aspects of Popular Front cultural movements. From interwar London to the Spanish Civil War and the USSR, the book examines the lives and work of Irish writers through their writings, their witness texts and their political activism. The relationships of these writers to George Orwell, Samuel Beckett, T.S. Eliot, Nancy Cunard, William Carlos Williams and other figures of cultural significance within the interwar period sheds new light on the internationalist aspects of a Leftist cultural history. The book also explores how Irish literary women on the Left defied marginalization. The impetus of the book is not merely to perform an act of literary salvage but to find new ways of re-imagining what might be said to constitute Irish literature mid-twentieth century; and to illustrate how Irish writers played a role in a transforming political moment of the twentieth century. It will be of interest to scholars and students of cultural history and literature, Irish diaspora studies, Jewish studies, and the social and literary history of the Thirties.