Micheal O’Siadhail – Poetry Reading with Q&A
Join us for a special afternoon poetry reading and Q&A with acclaimed Irish poet Micheal O’Siadhail, who will read from and discuss his latest collection The Essential Poems. O’Siadhail will be joined in conversation by Parneshia Jones, Director for Northwestern University Press.
Books will be available for purchase and O’Siadhail will sign them following the program. Light snacks and refreshments will also be available.
About the book:
With an illustrious literary career that has spanned over fifty years, renowned poet Micheal O’Siadhail has cemented his place on the international stage. From his debut collection, The Leap Year (1978), to his latest collection, Desire (2023), O’Siadhail captures evolving struggles with love, faith, and humanity. Here, spanning the entirety of his outstanding career, is the essence of his masterful body of work.
The Essential Poems voyages through traditional and innovative poetic forms, investigating love and passion, joy and loss, world-shaping events and personal experiences. O’Siadhail sounds the depths of meaning and evokes wonder, surprise, anguish, and delight. A lyrical meditation on the relationships between humanity and nature, despair and faith, and the richness of courage in the acts of healing completes what proves to be this unforgettable and necessary collection of the inimitable Irish poet.
MICHEAL O’SIADHAIL was born in Dublin in 1947. He was educated at Trinity College Dublin and the University of Oslo. A full-time writer, he has published eighteen collections of poetry, receiving numerous awards, including the Marten Toonder Prize for Literature and the Irish American Cultural Institute prize for poetry. He has been a lecturer at Trinity College Dublin and a professor at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies and is still writing poetry, splitting his time between New York City and Dublin.
PARNESHIA JONES serves as Director for Northwestern University Press. Her acquisitions have garnered some of the highest literary honors, including the National Book Award, the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards, NAACP Image Awards, and the LA Times Book Award, and have been finalists for the Pulitzer Prize.
The author of Vessel: Poems (Milkweed Editions, 2015), winner of the Midwest Book Award and featured as one of “12 Books to Savor” by O, The Oprah Magazine, Parneshia has been honored with the Adam Morgan Literary Leadership Award, the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Award, the Margaret Walker Short Story Award, and the Aquarius Press Legacy Award. Named one of the “25 Writers to Watch” by the Guild Complex and one of “Lit 50: Who Really Books in Chicago” by Newcity Magazine, her work has appeared in anthologies including She Walks in Beauty: A Woman’s Journey Through Poems and The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South. She has been featured on PBS Newshour, the Academy of American Poets, espnW, and an international poetry exchange in Seoul, South Korea, and sponsored by DreamYard.