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Queering the Green: Post-2000 Queer Irish Poetry
... every poem is a queering of language; every poetry critic is a critic of the queer; every reader of poetry is engaged in a queer act; every performance of poetry is a queer iteration.
But only we are queer.
—Paul Maddern, from the introduction
Queering the Green brings together thirty-one poets who collectively demonstrate the vibrant multiplicity of queer experience in twenty-first century Ireland. Edited by Paul Maddern, this landmark anthology creates a space for the celebration of queer poets from or living on the island of Ireland.
Featuring well-established poets alongside those at the beginning of their writing lives, this book is both a retrospective of the last two decades and a snapshot of the ongoing redefinition of Irish poetry. Queering the Green addresses exclusions of the past, speaks to the diversity of the present, and points towards the radical possibilities of the future.
Broad in scope and showcasing the diversity of post-2000 Irish poetry, these varied and distinctive poems are essential reading for anyone interested in Irish writing today.
But only we are queer.
—Paul Maddern, from the introduction
Queering the Green brings together thirty-one poets who collectively demonstrate the vibrant multiplicity of queer experience in twenty-first century Ireland. Edited by Paul Maddern, this landmark anthology creates a space for the celebration of queer poets from or living on the island of Ireland.
Featuring well-established poets alongside those at the beginning of their writing lives, this book is both a retrospective of the last two decades and a snapshot of the ongoing redefinition of Irish poetry. Queering the Green addresses exclusions of the past, speaks to the diversity of the present, and points towards the radical possibilities of the future.
Broad in scope and showcasing the diversity of post-2000 Irish poetry, these varied and distinctive poems are essential reading for anyone interested in Irish writing today.
423 pages, Paperback
Published November 1, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 23, 2024
Lovely anthology, found some writers I will be reading more from and some new favourite stanzas.
"I become glass. To turn my body into love
I hide from stones. I keep the quietness a shroud and
make
a shelter of my own inside the soft. I build my home."
~William Keohane
"I become glass. To turn my body into love
I hide from stones. I keep the quietness a shroud and
make
a shelter of my own inside the soft. I build my home."
~William Keohane
August 2, 2024
Actually flabbergasted at how bad this is. I've read a couple of these poets' works before and have loved them, so I found myself shocked at how poor the quality of this collection is.
Nothing really moved me at all. No interesting poetical forms; no startling imagery; no creative uses of language. Just bog standard queer auto-bio poetry about bad relationships and worse sex.
Nothing really moved me at all. No interesting poetical forms; no startling imagery; no creative uses of language. Just bog standard queer auto-bio poetry about bad relationships and worse sex.
May 2, 2023
There are certainly a few gems in here (Colette Bryce, Sean Hewitt, etc), but this book was way too long and so much lacklustre work was included. It would have been much better if this collection was at least 200 pages shorter.
November 19, 2023
I read this for class, and I really hate to say it but objectively most of these poems are bad, if not terrible. Queer Irish poetry is exactly up my alley but none of these resonated with me in any way. Maybe after class tomorrow I will have some new insight or appreciation, because my Prof is in the collection, but I don't have high hopes.
January 15, 2023
Unfortunately this was a massive disappointment, especially considering I spent money on a copy of this - convinced I would love it. There were perhaps about 10 great poems in this anthology, and a couple more that were passable. The rest of the poems, however, read like first drafts and were painful to get through.
The collection would have been infinitely stronger if instead of the ≈8 poems selected per poet, it was narrowed down to one/two. The great poems in this anthology were weakened by the several mediocre ones that immediately followed from that same poet.
In fairness, I probably should have immediately given up hope upon reading in the introduction (written by the editor) the line: "And, whatever your political leanings, we shouldn't downplay the significance of the Republic's first openly gay Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar." Would ya be able?
The collection would have been infinitely stronger if instead of the ≈8 poems selected per poet, it was narrowed down to one/two. The great poems in this anthology were weakened by the several mediocre ones that immediately followed from that same poet.
In fairness, I probably should have immediately given up hope upon reading in the introduction (written by the editor) the line: "And, whatever your political leanings, we shouldn't downplay the significance of the Republic's first openly gay Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar." Would ya be able?
March 21, 2022
A gorgeous collection, sweeping and rangy, styles and forms in abundance. I think maybe my favourite poet in the collection was Seán Hewitt, but there were so many gorgeous poems from writers I will be seeking out further.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews