The Ireland Chair of Poetry Trust are delighted to welcome Vona Groarke as the tenth Ireland Professor of Poetry, taking over from the current holder, Professor Paul Muldoon. The position will run from September 2025 to November 2028.
Of her appointment, Vona said “it may seem strange for the newly minted Ireland Professor of Poetry to find herself (almost!) at a loss for words to describe the delight and honour of having been selected for a role some of our finest poets have graced and amplified. But I want to express my deep gratitude to the Trust for this opportunity. I hope that my tenure will continue the service of my predecessors in highlighting the work of those who’ve chosen to put the practice of the art and craft of poetry at the very centre of our lives”
She added “I would like my time as Ireland Professor of Poetry to honour all those individuals and organisations, from teachers to libraries, readers to Irish publishers, whose attentions and efforts help to sustain the work of Irish poets. Together, we contribute to a sense that Ireland north and south, is a place where poetry happens and continues to matter. I also look forward to engaging with as many aspiring poets and readers of all ages as possible during my time in the role.”
During their tenure the Ireland Professor of Poetry is associated for one year with each of the three universities and resides for a period of approximately eight weeks at each. While in residence, the poet engages with students through a series of workshops and readings, performs outreach work and makes one formal presentation, usually in the form of a lecture.
Liam Hannaway, outgoing Chair of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, and Chair of the Ireland Chair of Poetry Trust, said, “I am delighted to witness Vona Groarke joining the great line of fantastic Irish poets who have held the position of Ireland Professor of Poetry. I wish her good fortune and I very much look forward to the freshness and energy which she will bring to the role. I would also like to acknowledge the work of the previous Ireland Professor of Poetry, Paul Muldoon, and thank him for his contribution over the past three years to the appreciation of poetry in Ireland and beyond. It has been a pleasure to have witnessed him at work in that time.”
Maura McGrath, Chair of the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon, and incoming Chair of the Ireland Chair of Poetry Trust said: “The appointment of Professor Vona Groarke as the next Ireland Professor of Poetry is a moment of celebration for poetry in Ireland. Vona’s work, marked by precision, insight and emotional depth, has long been a cornerstone of contemporary Irish literature. Her appointment recognises not only her outstanding poetic achievements but also her ongoing contribution to the life of the arts in Ireland and beyond. The Arts Council is proud to support the Ireland Chair of Poetry Trust in this important role and looks forward to the ways in which Vona’s tenure will inspire readers, students, and fellow poets alike.”
The Ireland Chair of Poetry Trust was established in 1998 following the award of the Nobel Prize for Literature to Seamus Heaney. It was felt that this honour should be marked by choosing, every three years, a poet of honour and distinction to hold the Ireland Chair of Poetry. The Chair is supported by Queens University Belfast, Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin, as well as by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon.
Biographical Note
Vona Groarke has published fifteen books and has been described in Poetry Ireland Review as ‘one of the best writers in Ireland today’. Her ninth poetry collection, Infinity Pool, was published in May 2025 by The Gallery Press, and includes poems previously published in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, Poetry (Chicago), The Poetry Review, Poetry London and The TLS.
In 2022, New York University Press published Hereafter: The Telling Life of Ellen O’Hara – a poetic account of a young Irish woman emigrant to New York in the late nineteenth century. This arose out of Groarke’s time as a Cullman Fellow at the New York Public Library 2018-19. Of it, The Spectator predicted: ‘Groarke’s lyrical act of historical investigation will surely become a classic of Irish literature’. Hereafter won the 2024 Michel Déon Award and was cited by the judges as a ‘truly powerful, enchanting and singular’ work.
Groarke is also an accomplished essayist. In 2016 an Irish Times reviewer found her book-length essay, Four Sides Full, ‘as moving as it is erudite and elegant’ and, in the same year, her Selected Poems was deemed ‘a collection of almost sublime purity’ by The Dublin Review of Books. Groarke’s Selected Poems was awarded the 2017 Piggott Prize for Best Irish Poetry Collection. Her version of Eibhlín Dubh Ni Chonaill’s Lament for Art O’Leary was re-published to accompany Irene Buckley’s opera based on the text, which premiered in Dublin’s National Concert Hall in March 2025.
She was the 2017 recipient of the Irish Literary Hall of Fame Award, and is a member of Aosdána, the Irish Academy of the Arts, and of the Royal Literary Society. A poetry reviewer for The Irish Times and Curator of PoetryFest at the Irish Arts Center in New York, she has taught poetry at the University of Manchester since 2007 and is the current Writer in Residence at St. John’s College, Cambridge.
For further information or to interview Vona Groarke, contact Liz Kelly at Poetry Ireland director@poetryireland.ie