Michael Longley, CBE

Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

 (born 27 July 1939) is a Northern Irish poet from Belfast

Belfast

Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...

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Life and career

Longley was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution

Royal Belfast Academical Institution

The Royal Belfast Academical Institution, is a Grammar School in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Locally referred to as Inst, the school educates boys from ages 11–18...

 and subsequently read Classics

Classics

Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world ; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or...

 at Trinity College, Dublin

Trinity College, Dublin

Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...

, where he edited Icarus

Icarus (magazine)

Icarus is a student literary magazine based in Trinity College, Dublin. It publishes three issues per academic year and accepts submissions of poetry, prose and drama from students, staff and alumni of Dublin University. It was founded in 1950 by Alec Reid and has been published with regularity...

. He was Professor of Poetry for Ireland from 2007 to 2010, a cross-border academic post set up in 1998, previously held by John Montague

John Montague

John Montague may refer to:*John Montague , Irish poet and writer*John Montague , baseball relief pitcher*John Montague , golfer and con man...

, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill

Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill

Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill is an Irish poet.Born in Lancashire, England in 1952, of Irish parents, she moved to Ireland at the age of 5, and was brought up in the Dingle Gaeltacht and in Nenagh, County Tipperary. Her uncle is Monsignor Pádraig Ó Fiannachta of An Daingean, the leading authority alive on...

 and Paul Durcan

Paul Durcan

Paul Durcan is a contemporary Irish poet.-Early life:Durcan grew up in Dublin and in Turlough, County Mayo. His father, John, was a barrister and circuit court judge; father and son had a difficult and formal relationship. Durcan enjoyed a warmer and more natural relationship with his mother,...

. He was succeeded in 2010 by Harry Clifton

Harry Clifton

Harry Clifton is an Irish poet. He was born in Dublin, but has lived in Africa and Asia, as well as more recently in continental Europe...

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In North America, Michael Longley is published by Wake Forest University Press

Wake Forest University Press

Established in 1976, Wake Forest University Press is a non-profit literary publisher located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on the campus of Wake Forest University. Although small among university presses, it is a major publisher of Irish poetry in North America.Wake Forest Press publishes poets...

. His wife Edna Longley

Edna Longley

Edna Longley is an Irish literary critic and cultural commentator specialising in modern Irish and British poetry.Now Professor Emerita at Queen's University Belfast, as a lecturer and later Professor of English at Queen's, Longley exerted a significant moderating and enabling influence on the...

 is also an influential critic on modern Irish and British poetry.

Awards and honours

Gorse Fires (1991) won the Whitbread Poetry Prize. The Weather in Japan (2000) won the T. S. Eliot Prize

T. S. Eliot Prize

The T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry is awarded by the Poetry Book Society to "the best collection of new verse in English first published in the UK or the Republic of Ireland" in any particular year. The Prize was inaugurated in 1993 in celebration of the Poetry Book Society's 40th birthday and in...

 and the Hawthornden Prize

Hawthornden Prize

The Hawthornden Prize is a British literary award that was established in 1919 by Alice Warrender. Authors are awarded on the quality of their "imaginative literature" which can be written in either poetry or prose...

. He holds honorary doctorates from Queen's University Belfast (1995) and Trinity College, Dublin

Trinity College, Dublin

Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...

 (1999) and was the 2001 recipient of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry

Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry

The Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry is awarded for a book of verse published by someone in any of the Commonwealth realms. Originally the award was open only to British subjects living in the United Kingdom, but in 1985 the scope was extended to include people from the rest of the Commonwealth realms...

. Longley was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2010 Birthday Honours.
He won a 2011 London Awards for Art and Performance

London Awards for Art and Performance

The London Awards for Art and Performance is awarded in 11 different art categories, by the London Festival Fringe.It is awarded each year, at a central London venue, and is presented to artists and performers who have made an outstanding contribution to their art form.-Awards:- External links :* **...

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Partial bibliography

• Ten Poems (1965)
• Secret Marriages: Nine Short Poems (1968)
• No Continuing City (1969)
• Lares (1972)
• An Exploded View (1973)
• Fishing in the Sky: Love Poems (1975)
• Man Lying on a Wall (1976)
• The Echo Gate (1979)
• Patchwork (1981)
• Poems 1963-1983 (1985)
• Poems 1963-1980 (1981)
• Gorse Fires (1991)
• Baucis and Philemon: After Ovid (1993)
• Birds and Flowers: Poems (1994)
• Tuppeny Stung: Autobiographical Chapters (1994)
• The Ghost Orchid (1995)
• Ship of the Wind (1997)
• Broken Dishes (1998)
• Selected Poems (1998)
• The Weather in Japan (2000)
• Snow Water (2004)
• Collected Poems (2006)

Further reading

• Allen, Michael, ed. Options: The Poetry of Michael Longley, Éire-Ireland 10.4 (1975): pp. 129–35.
• Allen Randolph, Jody. "Michael Longley, February 2010." Close to the Next Moment: Interviews from a Changing Ireland. Manchester: Carcanet, 2010.
• Allen Randolph, Jody and Douglas Archibald, eds. Special Issue on Michael Longley. Colby Quarterly 39.3 (September 2003).
• Brearton, Fran. Reading Michael Longley. Bloodaxe, 2006.
• Clyde, Tom, ed. Special Issue on Michael Longley. Honest Ulsterman 110 (Summer 2001).
• Peacock, Alan J. and Kathleen Devine, eds. The Poetry of Michael Longley: Ulster Editions and Monographs 10, Gerrards Cross
  Gerrards Cross
  Gerrards Cross is a village in Buckinghamshire, England. It is in the south of the county, near the border with Greater London, south of Chalfont St Peter. Gerrards Cross is also a civil parish within South Bucks district, which was known as the Beaconsfield district from 1974 to 1980...
  
  : Colin Smythe, 2000.
• Robertson, Robin, ed. Love Poet, Carpenter: Michael Longley at Seventy. London: Enitharmon Press, 2009.
• Russell, Richard Rankin. Poetry and Peace: Michael Longley, Seamus Heaney, and Northern Ireland. South Bend: Notre Dame UP, 2010.

External links

• Michael Longley at Irish Writers Online contains a "Critical Perspective" section
• Wake Forest University Press North American publisher of Longley
• Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery
• Poetry archive profile and poems written and audio