Vona Groarke is an Irish

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

Biography

She has published fourteen books, including eight collections of poetry with the Gallery Press: ''Shale'' (1994), ''Other People's Houses'' (1999), ''Flight'' (2002), ''Juniper Street'' (2006), ''Spindrift'' (2009), ''X'' (2014), ''Double Negative'' (2019), and ''Link : Poet and World'' (2021). She is also the author of a translation of the eighteenth-century Irish poem, ''Lament for Art O'Leary'' ( Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire) (Gallery Books, 2008). and of ''Woman of Winter'' (2023), a version of the ninth-century Irish poem usually known as 'The Lament of the Hag of Beare', with illustrations by Isobel Nolan. ''Selected Poems'' was published in 2016 and won the Pigott Prize for Best Irish Poetry Collection. Her book-length essay on art frames and much else, ''Four Sides Full'', was also published in 2016. In 2022, New York University Press published ''Hereafter: The Telling Life of Ellen O'Hara'', an innovative, mixed-genre account of Irish women immigrants in late nineteenth-century New York, and their lives and work as domestic servants. With poetry, prose, history and images, ''Hereafter'' arose out of her time as a Fellow of the Cullman Center at the New York Public Library, 2018–19. A previous editor of ''Poetry Ireland Review'' (issues 113–120, with best-selling special issues on Seamus Heaney, W.B. Yeats and the Rising Generation of Irish poets), she has also been a Selector for the Poetry Book Society in the U.K., a judge of the Forward Prizes, the Pollard Prize and the International Dublin Literary Award, as well as a poetry reviewer for the ''Irish Times''. Recent essays on poets and poetry have appeared in the ''L.A. Review of Books'', ''The Poetry Review'', ''P.N. Review'', and ''Poetry Ireland Review''. Groarke has been a co-holder of the Heimbold Chair of Irish Studies at

Villanova University Villanova University is a Private university, private Catholic Church, Catholic research university in Villanova, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded by the Order of Saint Augustine in 1842 and named after Thomas of Villanova, Saint Thom ...

and has taught at

Wake Forest University Wake Forest University (WFU) is a private research university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1834, the university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina. The R ...

in North Carolina. She has taught at the Centre for New Writing at the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

since 2007. In 2010, she was elected a member of Aosdána, the Irish academy of the arts. She is the current Poet in Residence with the Yeats Society in Sligo, and Writer in Residence at St John's College, Cambridge.

Awards and honours

Groarke's work has been recognized with awards including the

Brendan Behan Brendan Francis Aidan Behan (christened Francis Behan) ( ; ; 9 February 1923 – 20 March 1964) was an Irish poet, short story writer, novelist, playwright, and Irish Republican, an activist who wrote in both English and Irish. His widely ackno ...

Memorial Award, the Hennessy Award, the Michael Hartnett Award, and the Strokestown International Poetry Award. Her volumes ''Spindrift'', 'X', and 'Double Negative' have all been nominated for the Irish Times Poetry Now Award. ''Hereafter: The Telling Life of Ellen O'Hara'' was shortlisted for the Irish Independent / Yeats Society Poetry Prize 2023.

Books

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

: ''Shale'', The Gallery Press, Oldcastle *

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

: ''Other People's Houses'', The Gallery Press, Oldcastle *

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

: ''The Deserted Village'' (Introduction to Oliver Goldsmith poem, with drawings by Blaise Drummond) *

: ''Flight'', The Gallery Press, Oldcastle *

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

: ''Flight and Earlier Poems'', Wake Forest University Press, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States *

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

: ''Juniper Street'', The Gallery Press, Oldcastle; Wake Forest University Press, Winston-Salem, NC *

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

: ''Lament for Art O'Leary'', The Gallery Press, Oldcastle *

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

: ''Spindrift'', The Gallery Press, Oldcastle; Wake Forest University Press, Winston-Salem, NC,2010 *

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

: ''X'', The Gallery Press, Oldcastle *

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

: ''Selected Poems'', The Gallery Press, Oldcastle *

: ''Four Sides Full'', The Gallery Press, Oldcastle *

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

: ''Double Negative'', The Gallery Press, Oldcastle *

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

: ''Link : Poet and World'', The Gallery Press, Oldcastle *

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

: ''Hereafter: The Telling Life of Ellen O'Hara'', NYU Press, New York, NY, 10003 *

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

: ''Woman of Winter'', The Gallery Press, Oldcastle

References

External links

* https://vonagroarke.com * https://gallerypress.com/authors/g-to-l/vona-groarke/ * https://nyupress.org/9781479817528/hereafter/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Groarke, Vona Irish women poets Wake Forest University faculty Living people Aosdána members People from Edgeworthstown 20th-century Irish writers 21st-century Irish writers 20th-century Irish women writers 21st-century Irish women writers Irish poets Year of birth missing (living people) Writers from County Longford Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Alumni of University College Cork