Vona Groarke, Irish Poet

Thursday, March 15, 2007

7:30 p.m.

Martin Hall, O'Dell Lounge

Vona Groarke was born in the Irish Midlands in 1964 and now lives in North Carolina, where she teaches at Wake Forest University. Her volume entitled Flight was short-listed for the Forward Prize in 2002 and won the Michael Hartnett award in 2003. Other poetry prizes include the Hennessy Award, the Brendan Behan Memorial Prize, the Strokestown International Poetry Award, the Stand Magazine International Poetry Prize, and runner-up in the Times Literary Supplement Poetry Competition (2003). 

"There is an engaging diversity to the poems in this book and much to admire. . . . Vona Groarke, though still young, always seems to this reviewer to be a ‘real' poet, one who produces consistently good work and who lives through her poetry. Juniper Street is a worthy successor to her three previous collections, with its mix of to-the-heart-of-the-matter observations, and melancholic and piercing voices; we will be reading Vona Groarke for a long time to come.
                    - Nuala Ní Chonchúir, The Irish Book Review, Summer 2006

 "Ambitious, tender and lyrically beautiful . . ."
                                                                       - The Irish Times

For more information, contact Andy Hazucha, English Dept., ext. 5406.