Between Here and There
In her second book of poems Sinead Morrissey's worlds grow more diverse, encompassing the Orient, the Antipodes, America and an Ireland which recent history has changed and yet not deeply, a country observed through eyes that travel and time have made clear, dispassionate and disabused.
Between Here and There answers the question where Sinead Morrissey has been since the publication of There Was Fire in Vancouver in 1996. Back in her native Belfast after several years abroad, she has produced a long-awaited second collection strung between four continents. These poems, which constitute a radical departure from her earlier work, move between the surreal artscapes of the American South West, the effects of global warming on a lake outside Auckland, and the graves of miscarried babies in Japan, to the difficulties attendant on the peace process in Northern Ireland and the instability of the devolved Assembly. Robust, surprising and technically accomplished, "Between Here and There" builds towards the critically-acclaimed Japanese sequence featured in "New Poetries II". Avoiding the better-travelled paths of the Zen / Haiku traditions in Western poetry, Morrissey instead explores a world of heavy industry, environmental damage, disaffected schoolchildren and a traditional village culture vibrant with raw sexual energy.
Between Here and There answers the question where Sinead Morrissey has been since the publication of There Was Fire in Vancouver in 1996. Back in her native Belfast after several years abroad, she has produced a long-awaited second collection strung between four continents. These poems, which constitute a radical departure from her earlier work, move between the surreal artscapes of the American South West, the effects of global warming on a lake outside Auckland, and the graves of miscarried babies in Japan, to the difficulties attendant on the peace process in Northern Ireland and the instability of the devolved Assembly. Robust, surprising and technically accomplished, "Between Here and There" builds towards the critically-acclaimed Japanese sequence featured in "New Poetries II". Avoiding the better-travelled paths of the Zen / Haiku traditions in Western poetry, Morrissey instead explores a world of heavy industry, environmental damage, disaffected schoolchildren and a traditional village culture vibrant with raw sexual energy.
About the author
Sinead Morrissey was born in 1972 and grew up in Belfast. She read English and German at Trinity College, Dublin, from which she took her PhD in 2003. Her five collections are "There Was Fire in Vancouver" (1996), "Between Here and There" (2002), "The State of the Prisons" (2005), "Through the Square Window" (2009) and the T. S. Eliot Prize-winning "Parallax" (2013) all of which are published by Carcanet Press. She has lived in Germany, Japan and New Zealand and now lectures in creative writing at the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry, Queen's University, Belfast. She is Belfast's inaugural Poet Laureate.
Reviews
Winner: 2013 T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry (Parallax)
Poetry Book Society Choice for Through the Square Window (2009)
Winner of UK National Poetry Competition for the poem "Through the Square Window" (2007)
Winner of a Lannan Literary Fellowship (2007)
Poetry Book Society Recommendation for The State of the Prisons (2005)
Shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Commonwealth Literature Prize for The State of the Prisons (2005)
Shortlisted for the Irish Times Poetry Prize for The State of the Prisons (2005)
Shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize for The State of the Prisons (2005)
Joint winner of the Michael Hartnett Award for Poetry for The State of the Prisons (2005)
Shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize for Between Here and There (2002)
MaCaulay Fellowship (2002)
Rupert and Eithne Strong Award for Between Here and There (2002)
An Eric Gregory Award for There Was Fire in Vancouver (1996)
Patrick Kavanagh Award for Poetry (1990)
Poetry Book Society Choice for Through the Square Window (2009)
Winner of UK National Poetry Competition for the poem "Through the Square Window" (2007)
Winner of a Lannan Literary Fellowship (2007)
Poetry Book Society Recommendation for The State of the Prisons (2005)
Shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Commonwealth Literature Prize for The State of the Prisons (2005)
Shortlisted for the Irish Times Poetry Prize for The State of the Prisons (2005)
Shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize for The State of the Prisons (2005)
Joint winner of the Michael Hartnett Award for Poetry for The State of the Prisons (2005)
Shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize for Between Here and There (2002)
MaCaulay Fellowship (2002)
Rupert and Eithne Strong Award for Between Here and There (2002)
An Eric Gregory Award for There Was Fire in Vancouver (1996)
Patrick Kavanagh Award for Poetry (1990)