Lunulae: New & Selected Poems in Translation

by Doireann Ní Ghríofa, Brian Ó Conchubhair (editor), Daniela Theinová (editor)

Genres: Poetry

88 pages, Paperback

Published October 25, 2024

About the author

Doireann Ní Ghríofa is a ​bilingual ​writer​,​ devoted to exploring how the past makes itself felt within the present. ‘​​A Ghost in the Throat’ finds an 18th century poet haunting a young mother, leading her through visions of blood, milk, lust, and murder. Written on the roof of a multi-storey car park in Ireland, it went on to be described as “powerful” (New York Times), “captivatingly original” (The Guardian), and a “masterpiece” (Sunday Business Post). ​'A Ghost in the Throat’ won the James Tait Black Prize and was voted overall Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards, while the US edition was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and a New York Times Notable Book of 2021. It is to appear in 15 further languages worldwide.
Doireann is also the author of six critically-acclaimed books of poetry, each a deepening exploration of birth, death, desire, and domesticity. Awards for her writing include a Lannan Literary Fellowship (USA), the Ostana Prize (Italy), the James Tait Black Prize (Scotland), a Seamus Heaney Fellowship, and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature​, among others.

Reviews

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ni Ghriofa's poems remind us that the domestic is the profound and the sacred, full of imagination and possibility. A roll of tin foil becomes a river spilling with salmon, a square of knitting becomes a dark memory of a locked childhood door. Fingernails are crescent moons. These poems are an invitation to shift the light.

[Lisa Stice · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love that we get to see the original Irish version of the poems alongside their English translations and that Doireann Ní Ghríofa does her own translations. She has a gift of celebrating the beautifully quiet moments of domestic life.