Wake Forest University Press
Encyclopedia
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 from the Republic of Ireland and from Northern Ireland. Poets published include Ciarán Carson
, Austin Clarke, Harry Clifton, Denis Devlin
, Peter Fallon, Vona Groarke
, Michael Hartnett, Thomas Kinsella
, Michael Longley
, Derek Mahon, Medbh McGuckian
, Paula Meehan, John Montague
, Paul Muldoon
, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill
, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin
, Conor O'Callaghan
, and Peter Sirr. The Press also published The Donegal Pictures, a book of black-and-white photographs by photographer Rachel Geise (now Brown).
Other noteworthy publications include two anthologies, The Wake Forest Book of Irish Women’s Poetry, 1967-2000, and the Wake Forest Series of Irish Poetry, volume 1. The New North, an anthology of contemporary Northern Irish poetry, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)
and selected and edited by Chris Agee, will be published in late 2008.
For a number of years, Wake Forest University Press published a bilingual series of 20th-century French poetry, but that series is no longer active.
The Press began when Dillon Johnston, Irish scholar and professor of English, realized how few titles of contemporary Irish poetry were consistently available in the United States. Supported by the administration at Wake Forest, he established the press in 1976. Johnston retired from Wake Forest in 2003, but remains an advising editor. He teaches at Washington University.
Jefferson Holdridge, who received his doctorate at University College Dublin, is the press's director and editor. He is also Associate Professor of English at Wake Forest University, specializing in Irish literature. Staff includes Assistant Director and Manager, Candide Jones, and a workforce of student interns.
Publishing
Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...
located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Winston-Salem is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina, with a 2010 population of 229,617. Winston-Salem is the county seat and largest city of Forsyth County and the fourth-largest city in the state. Winston-Salem is the second largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region and is home to...
, on the campus of Wake Forest University
Wake Forest University
Wake Forest University is a private, coeducational university in the U.S. state of North Carolina, founded in 1834. The university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina, the state capital. The Reynolda Campus, the university's main campus, is...
. Although small among university presses, it is a major publisher of Irish poetry
Irish poetry
The history of Irish poetry includes the poetries of two languages, one in Irish and the other in English. The complex interplay between these two traditions, and between both of them and other poetries in English, has produced a body of work that is both rich in variety and difficult to...
in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
.
Wake Forest Press publishes poets from the Republic of Ireland and from Northern Ireland. Poets published include Ciarán Carson
Ciaran Carson
Ciaran Gerard Carson is a Belfast, Northern Ireland-born poet and novelist.-Early years:Ciaran Carson was born in Belfast into an Irish-speaking family...
, Austin Clarke, Harry Clifton, Denis Devlin
Denis Devlin
Denis Devlin was, along with Samuel Beckett and Brian Coffey, one of the generation of Irish modernist poets to emerge at the end of the 1920s. He was also a career diplomat.-Early life and studies:...
, Peter Fallon, Vona Groarke
Vona Groarke
Vona Groarke is an Irish poet.Groarke was born in Edgeworthstown in the Irish midlands in 1964, and attended Trinity College, Dublin, and University College, Cork...
, Michael Hartnett, Thomas Kinsella
Thomas Kinsella
Thomas Kinsella is an Irish poet, translator, editor, and publisher.-Early life and work:Kinsella was born in Lucan, County Dublin. He spent much of his childhood with relatives in rural Ireland. He was educated in the Irish language at the Model School, Inchicore and the O'Connell Christian...
, Michael Longley
Michael Longley
Michael Longley, CBE is a Northern Irish poet from Belfast.-Life and career:Longley was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and subsequently read Classics at Trinity College, Dublin, where he edited Icarus...
, Derek Mahon, Medbh McGuckian
Medbh McGuckian
Medbh McGuckian is a poet from Northern Ireland.-Biography:She was born the third of six children as Maeve McCaughan to Hugh and Margaret McCaughan in North Belfast. Her father was a school headmaster and her mother an influential art and music enthusiast...
, Paula Meehan, John Montague
John Montague (poet)
John Montague is an Irish poet. He was born in New York and brought up in Tyrone. He has published a number of volumes of poetry, two collections of short stories and two volumes of memoir. He is one of the best known Irish contemporary poets...
, Paul Muldoon
Paul Muldoon
Paul Muldoon is an Irish poet. He has published over thirty collections and won a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the T. S. Eliot Prize. He held the post of Oxford Professor of Poetry from 1999 - 2004. At Princeton University he is both the Howard G. B. Clark ’21 Professor in the Humanities and...
, 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...
, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin
Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin
Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin is an Irish poet born in Cork .-Life:Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin is the daughter of Eilís Dillon and Professor Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin. She was educated at University College Cork and The University of Oxford. She lives in Dublin with her husband Macdara Woods, and they have one...
, Conor O'Callaghan
Conor O'Callaghan
Conor O'Callaghan is an Irish poet, born in Newry in 1968. He has published three collections of poetry: The History of Rain , Seatown , and Fiction...
, and Peter Sirr. The Press also published The Donegal Pictures, a book of black-and-white photographs by photographer Rachel Geise (now Brown).
Other noteworthy publications include two anthologies, The Wake Forest Book of Irish Women’s Poetry, 1967-2000, and the Wake Forest Series of Irish Poetry, volume 1. The New North, an anthology of contemporary Northern Irish poetry, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
and selected and edited by Chris Agee, will be published in late 2008.
For a number of years, Wake Forest University Press published a bilingual series of 20th-century French poetry, but that series is no longer active.
The Press began when Dillon Johnston, Irish scholar and professor of English, realized how few titles of contemporary Irish poetry were consistently available in the United States. Supported by the administration at Wake Forest, he established the press in 1976. Johnston retired from Wake Forest in 2003, but remains an advising editor. He teaches at Washington University.
Jefferson Holdridge, who received his doctorate at University College Dublin, is the press's director and editor. He is also Associate Professor of English at Wake Forest University, specializing in Irish literature. Staff includes Assistant Director and Manager, Candide Jones, and a workforce of student interns.