Taking My Letters Back: New and Selected Poems

by Dermot Bolger

`Taking My Letters Back' combines a selection of the best of Bolger's early work (often in freshly worked versions), along with two dozen poems written throughout the `90s which were never before been collected in book form. Combining poetry of lament and celebration, ghost voices and love poems, `Taking My Letters Back' completes the missing piece in that tapestry which has been the work of one of Ireland's most distinctive writers of the late 20th century. ""Perhaps only an Irish poet could risk the seeming sentimentality of such an attitude, and perhaps only an Irish poet would have the craft to make such an attitude reflect honest idealism rather than warm and fuzzy wishful thinking.""-Booklist

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Dermot Bolger is an Irish novelist, playwright and poet born in Finglas, a suburb of Dublin.

His work is often concerned with the articulation of the experiences of working-class characters who, for various reasons, feel alienated from society. Bolger questions the relevance of traditional nationalist concepts of Irishness, arguing for a more plural and inclusive society.

In the late 1970s Bolger set up Raven Arts Press, which he ran until 1992 when he co-founded New Island Press.

Reviews

[Lysergius · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yeah, not bad... Quirky and entertaining.