Contemporary Poetry

Acknowledgements

Firstly, my immense gratitude to both editors of the series, Martin

Halliwell and Andy Mousley, for their original interest and subse-

quent support for this project. Their patience, alert editorial eye

and encouragement were appreciated throughout. I would also like

to thank the work of Jackie Jones and staff at Edinburgh University

Press.

Thanks go to colleagues at the School of English, Drama and

Film at University College Dublin. In particular I would like to

acknowledge my lively conversations with Michelle O’Connell,

Porscha Fermanis and Ron Callan – and the support of Maria

Stuart and Mary Clayton. I am also grateful to Nick Daly for

encouraging research life in the department in such a produc-

tive way. Pauline Slattery’s wonderfully effi cient management

of undergraduate academic life in the school (with the help

of Marguerite Duggan and Anne Cleary) made this process

less painful. The experience of teaching the MA in American

Literature and a course on ‘Poetry and Poetics’ at UCD has

informed this project greatly. To those lively and inspiring stu-

dents who offered interpretations that opened up the poems again

(particularly Jean Hogan, Ciaran Lawless, David McCarthy and

Tobias Ryan) – my thanks!

Much of the initial writing took place in the lofty space of the

Irish National Library, and I would like to thank the staff at this

precious establishment. Bob and Becky Tracey very generously

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