Carcanet book launch online: Eavan Boland’s The Historians

Manchester-based Carcanet Press continues its programme of online book events broadcast live via Zoom, with this very special event to celebrate the launch of the final collection of poetry from Irish poet Eavan Boland, who died earlier this year.

The evening will be hosted by poet and academic, John McAuliffe, who will be joined by Eavan Boland’s UK publisher, Michael Schmidt, founder and managing director of Carcanet, plus one of the leading authorities on her poetry, Jody Allen-Randolph. There will be special guest readings from Maureen Kennelly of Arts Council Ireland and writer Colm Tóibín, previously of the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester.

Eavan Boland’s career spanned nearly 60 years, making her one of the foremost female voices in Irish literature.

Born in Dublin in 1944, Eavan Boland’s career spanned nearly 60 years, making her one of the foremost female voices in Irish literature. Known for her ability to weave myth, history and the life of an ordinary woman into ‘mesmerizing poetry’, she published numerous collections of poetry and, in 1995, a prose memoir, Object Lessons. Boland’s New Collected Poems, incorporating work from her previous books, was published in 2008 to glowing reviews, and her later collections include A Poet’s Dublin and A Woman Without a Country (both 2014). She taught at Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin and Bowdoin College in the US, and she was a Professor at Stanford University in California. She received many awards, including a Lannan Foundation Award in Poetry and an American Ireland Fund Literary Award.

The Carcanet website describes her final volume, The Historians, as: “A forceful and moving final volume from one of the most masterful poets of the twentieth century […] the culmination of her signature themes, exploring the ways in which the hidden, sometimes all-but-erased stories of women’s lives can powerfully revise our sense of the past. These extraordinary, intimate narratives cling to the future through memory, anger, and love in ways that rebuke the official record we call history.”

As is usual for Carcanet online events, extracts of the text will be shown during the reading so that audience members can read along, and they will also have the opportunity to put forward their own questions. Registration for this online event is £2, later redeemable against the cost of the book, available direct from Carcanet at a special price – attendees will receive the discount code and details of how to order during and after the event. Please note that there is a limited number of places for the reading, so do book early to avoid disappointment.