Hold Open the Door is a fascinating exploration of the meaning of influence and originality. It takes us to the places poetry comes from, places where invisible voices whang and whizz through the air, the wild exchanges between readers, writers, collaborators across the arts. Through the intimacy of formal teaching, the obliquity of the chance encounter, the long-distance correspondence, a poet may find a voice. We encounter the learner’s gaze on the model, an exemplar that validates by merely existing; we hear the advice that is resisted until the right moment comes to follow it. The influence may be felt as homage, but it can emerge as a veering away from the model. And then there’s the closeness of pastiche. This book shows how various the answers can be, to a single, probing challenge: to show how a beginning poet responds to a model, a teacher, a friend.
— Professor Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin
Offering an intimate look at the vast influence of Ireland’s extraordinary literary heritage, Hold Open the Door: A Commemorative Anthology from the Ireland Chair of Poetry highlights how a new Irish poetry is coming to stand alongside the tradition from which it has grown – leaving that tradition enriched and transformed.
The Ireland Chair of Poetry Commemorative Anthology celebrates the 25th anniversary of Seamus Heaney’s Nobel Prize Award, and the subsequent legacy created by the Ireland Chair of Poetry.
The anthology features original poems and essays from some of the most exciting new and emerging Irish poets as they reflect on the formative value of mentorship and creative exchange, drawing inspiration from renowned poets and artists across the island of Ireland and beyond.
Edited by the winners of the inaugural Ireland Chair of Poetry Student Award, Mícheál McCann, Summer Meline, Marcella L.A. Prince, Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe, with Ireland Chair of Poetry Professor Frank Ormsby acting as contributing editor, Hold Open the Door is an anthology uniquely placed to speak of the present moment, acknowledging the influence of a storied tradition, while forecasting the richness of what’s to come.
Beautifully produced in collaboration with UCD Press, Hold Open the Door is now available to order from their site here.