The Sun King - Softcover

O'Callaghan, Conor

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1930630670 ISBN 13: 9781930630673

Publisher: Wake Forest University Press, 2013

Synopsis

The poems in this volume celebrate love and lament its loss; bathe in the warmth of family while standing in the cold; see sexuality as a life force and measure the pulse of betrayal with a clarity that is nothing short of disarming. At times, O’Callaghan can be clever in the very best sense regarding technique and poetic voice, handling one with virtuosity and interrogating the other with postmodern zeal. At others, he drops his guard and witnesses the given life with a candor and simplicity that is made even more powerful because it has been so richly earned. All emotion is parried and tested with a command of poetry’s themes and forms that is as deft as one is likely to encounter anywhere by anyone.

About this title

About the Author

Born in 1968 in Newry in Northern Ireland, Conor O’Callaghan grew up in Dundalk, a town just south of the Irish border. He served as Writer-in-Residence at University College, Dublin, taught at Wake Forest University for four years, and co-held the Heimbold Chair in Irish Studies at Villanova University. Currently, he teaches at Sheffield Hallam University in England, where he teaches courses in creative writing, modern poetry, and Anglo-Irish literature. He presently lives in England, but has spent time traveling around England, Ireland, the United States, and Italy. WFU Press has published Seatown and Earlier Poems (2000); Fiction (2005), which was shortlisted for the Irish Times Poetry Now Award; and most recently The Sun King (2013). His earliest books include The History of Rain (1993) and Seatown (1999), both published in Ireland by The Gallery Press. He is also the editor of The Wake Forest Book of Irish Poetry, Volume III. O’Callaghan is the recipient of a number of awards, including the Patrick Kavanagh Award for his first collection of poetry, the Rooney Prize Special Award, and the Times Educational Fellowship. He was shortlisted for the Forward Prize in 1994. In addition to poetry, Conor O’Callaghan’s interests extend to writing on sport, especially soccer and cricket. In 1996, Irish national radio aired O’Callaghan’s acclaimed radio documentary on cricket in Ireland, The Season. His prose memoir entitled Red Mist: Roy Keane and the Football Civil War deals with the public uproar surrounding Ireland’s involvement in the 2002 World Cup and made the bestseller lists in Ireland and the UK.

Review

Constellations of words are the forms that these poems take, each one singular and organic, and the formal innovation and experiment in this collection is instantly obvious. ... The most sonically alive of poets ... The Sun King beats radiant gold out of the dark shards, the refuse and refusals, of life. --Maria Johnston, Tower Poetry

Exhilaratingly contemporary ... O'Callaghan's best book to date. --John McAuliffe, The Irish Times

'Internet speak' can be an exciting new kind of poetic form: in Conor O Callaghan s brilliant new collection, The Sun King, he writes a series of tiny poems, each as long as a tweet, and it s like a new kind of Japanese haiku in his hands. --Sinead Morrissey, The Independent

Edition details

• Publisher: Wake Forest University Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1930630670
• ISBN 13: 9781930630673
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 75