‘a marvellous work of art, part verse, part prose, part haiku, part beautifully controlled long, loose lines. It is about Belfast past and present and is full of surprises, savage and witty, human and extravagant. His voice is truly original, both intelligent and passionate.’ — A S Byatt, The Sunday Times, Books of the Year‘ ‘Carson is one of the most original poets now at work in this country . . . he is the master of the long line; these poems are manic, frightening and funny, and somehow manage to catch the tone of life in modern Belfast.’ — John Banville, The Irish Times ‘a quite exceptional and original talent . . . There is a continuous large effort under way here, one that may well turn out to be among the most enduring artistic products of Northern Ireland since 1968.’ — Neil Corcoran, TLS
Author
Ciaran Gerard Carson was born in 1948 in Belfast and educated at The Queen’s University, Belfast. He knows intimately not only the urban Belfast in which he was raised as a native Irish speaker, but also the traditions of rural Ireland. A traditional musician and a scholar of the Irish oral traditional, Carson was long the Traditional Arts Officer of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, and is a flutist, tinwhistler, and singer. He is Chair of Poetry at the Seamus Heaney Centre for poetry at Queen’s University, Belfast. He is married to fiddle player Deirdre Shannon, and has three children. He is author of over a dozen volumes of poetry, as well as translations of the Táin and of Dante’s Inferno, and novels, non-fiction, and a guide to traditional Irish music. Carson won an Eric Gregory Award in 1978.
