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Episode Notes
Eavan Boland is remembered as an outstanding poet and academic, who broke the mould of Irish poetry - and drew new audiences to the form - by making women's experiences central to her poems.
She was the author of more than 10 poetry collections, including 'Nightfeed’, ‘Outside History' and ‘Domestic Violence’, which explored historical and contemporary female identity.
Among her most cherished poems are Child of Our Time – in memory of the youngest victims of the 1974 Dublin bombings and Nightfeed – an evocative celebration of feeding her infant daughter under the cover of darkness.
She taught at Trinity College, UCD and from 1996 onward, was a tenured Professor of English at Stanford University. She was the recipient of many awards and her collection ‘In A Time Of Violence’ received a Lannan Award and was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize. She died in April of 2020.
In 2014 Eavan gave her Michael Littleton Memorial Lecture addressing what must have been a deliberately provocative title: - Has Poetry A Future.
The producer was Kevin Reynolds,
Mark Dwyer and Gar Duffy were on sound.
Special thanks to Lorelei Harris.