Carcanet Press - Object Lessons

Description
Author
Awards
Reviews

'I have put this book together, not as a prose narrative is usually constructed, but as a poem might be: in turnings and returnings. In parts which find and repeat themselves and re-state the argument until it loses its reasonable edge and hopefully becomes a sort of cadence.'

In Object Lessons Eavan Boland meditates on womanhood, nationhood, and the relationship, for a writer, between the two. Deeply personal, focused on the places and times of her own lived experience, Object Lessons finds in the details of one writer's life the larger significances that link the individual to a community, culture, a history and a future. Boland explores what it means to move from being the object of a poem to being its author, what it means to claim a radically new space as a woman and a poet, while retaining a verifying sense of continuity and connection. The book becomes a portrait of a critical imagination making a new path, finding new meaning in the objects it encounters.

Born in Dublin in 1944, Eavan Boland studied in Ireland, London and New York. Her first book was published in 1967. She taught at Trinity College, University College Dublin, Bowdoin College in Maine, and at the University of Iowa. She was Mabury Knapp Professor in the Humanities at Stanford University, California. ... read more

Awards won by Eavan Boland Winner, 2020 Costa Poetry Award
(The Historians) Winner, 2017 Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award

Praise for Eavan Boland 'having such valuable essays collected in a single volume, especially for a younger generation that may not have experienced, first-hand, the electric charge that Object Lessons applied to the Irish poetry world, is a boon.'
Vona Groarke, The Irish Times
'[Citizen Poet] is wide-ranging, thrillingly combative, and evidence of an ambitious commitment to broadening poetry's scope of possibility -- and, in doing so, remaking its past. ... If poetry, especially Irish poetry, has become less lonely than it was when Boland first encountered it, that's thanks in no small part to her lifelong work.'
Declan Ryan, The Telegraph
'Eavan Boland's essays are the work of an ever-generous, insightful and knowing cartographer. No one articulates the complexities, challenges and nuances of being an Irish female poet like she does in these original, arresting and trailblazing essays. Citizen Poet is a must-read for anyone interested in poetry, identity and the responsibilities of the artist.'
Victoria Kennefick 'Boland's essays remind us [...] of the change she helped bring about, which is nothing less than the redefinition and expansion of what Irish poetry â what any poetry â can be.'
Heather Clark

'...She has a dazzling gift for marrying the poem's narrative to its underlying considerations and themes, her carefully enacted restraint heightening the impact of the frequently stunning closing image.'

Maya C. Popa, Poetry Review

'The poems, all of them, have that familiar, spare, feel to them - the clarity of cold water, the measured cadence, the plain diction and the leaping insight so characteristic of her mature work - but there is grief here of a depth and of a kind that chills the heart... against the darkness that eddies and gathers in this, the last book we will have from her hand, there is indeed redemptive light'

Theo Dorgan, Dublin Review of Books

'This is a fitting tribute to a poet whose work has revised history as we know it and whose talent will be much missed.'

Poetry Book Society Winter Bulletin

'The first poem in Boland's book, The Fire Gilder, is one of the best Irish poems of the past half-century.'

Colm Tóibín, The Irish Times

'Truly consumable, enjoyable and emotive... all the things that great poetry should be.'

Jasmine Reads, YouTube

'[The Historians] zooms in with characteristic musicality and intelligence on what the stories that are often overlooked - those of women'

Rishi Dastidar, The Guardian Poetry Books of the Year 2020

'It is, as came to be expected from Boland, filled with stories of ordinary Irish women, sensitively rendered in her understated verse. In revisiting the otherwise erased experiences of her subjects, Boland asks us to reconfigure our own understanding of the past, though she acknowledges the difficulties of that, too'
The New Statesman
'There's a poignancy here that is hard to avoid... This modest collection is welcome and those who have not read Boland - few though they may be - will find here at least an introduction to her always-potent art. For others, it will serve as a coda to a poetic life well lived.'
Books Ireland Magazine
'It feels, reading it in the wake of her death, to be unsettlingly prophetic, a fitting close to the life's work of a great poet'
Seán Hewitt, The Irish Times
'... a rich, unsettling moral adventure in memory and responsibility.'
Theo Dorgan
Eavan Boland's A Journey with Two Maps: Becoming a Woman Poet contains essays both personal and public written in a tone urgent and wise, with astute observations on her own trajectory as a poet and the work of Elizabeth Bishop, Sylvia Plath and Paula Meehan, among others.
Colm Toibin, The Irish Times, Our Favourite Books of 2011

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Object Lessons Eavan Boland 10% off Paperback Categories: 20th Century, Irish, Women Imprint: Carcanet Poetry Publisher: Carcanet Press Available as: Paperback (272 pages) (Pub. Mar 2006) 9781857548822 £14.99 £13.49 Hardback (272 pages) (Pub. Apr 1995) 9781857540741 Out of Stock Description Author Awards Reviews 'I have put this book together, not as a prose narrative is usually constructed, but as a poem might be: in turnings and returnings. In parts which find and repeat themselves and re-state the argument until it loses its reasonable edge and hopefully becomes a sort of cadence.' In Object Lessons Eavan Boland meditates on womanhood, nationhood, and the relationship, for a writer, between the two. Deeply personal, focused on the places and times of her own lived experience, Object Lessons finds in the details of one writer's life the larger significances that link the individual to a community, culture, a history and a future. Boland explores what it means to move from being the object of a poem to being its author, what it means to claim a radically new space as a woman and a poet, while retaining a verifying sense of continuity and connection. The book becomes a portrait of a critical imagination making a new path, finding new meaning in the objects it encounters. Born in Dublin in 1944, Eavan Boland studied in Ireland, London and New York. Her first book was published in 1967. She taught at Trinity College, University College Dublin, Bowdoin College in Maine, and at the University of Iowa. She was Mabury Knapp Professor in the Humanities at Stanford University, California. ... read more Awards won by Eavan Boland Winner, 2020 Costa Poetry Award (The Historians) Winner, 2017 Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award Praise for Eavan Boland 'having such valuable essays collected in a single volume, especially for a younger generation that may not have experienced, first-hand, the electric charge that Object Lessons applied to the Irish poetry world, is a boon.' Vona Groarke, The Irish Times '[Citizen Poet] is wide-ranging, thrillingly combative, and evidence of an ambitious commitment to broadening poetry's scope of possibility -- and, in doing so, remaking its past. ... If poetry, especially Irish poetry, has become less lonely than it was when Boland first encountered it, that's thanks in no small part to her lifelong work.' Declan Ryan, The Telegraph 'Eavan Boland's essays are the work of an ever-generous, insightful and knowing cartographer. No one articulates the complexities, challenges and nuances of being an Irish female poet like she does in these original, arresting and trailblazing essays. Citizen Poet is a must-read for anyone interested in poetry, identity and the responsibilities of the artist.' Victoria Kennefick 'Boland's essays remind us [...] of the change she helped bring about, which is nothing less than the redefinition and expansion of what Irish poetry â what any poetry â can be.' Heather Clark '...She has a dazzling gift for marrying the poem's narrative to its underlying considerations and themes, her carefully enacted restraint heightening the impact of the frequently stunning closing image.' Maya C. Popa, Poetry Review 'The poems, all of them, have that familiar, spare, feel to them - the clarity of cold water, the measured cadence, the plain diction and the leaping insight so characteristic of her mature work - but there is grief here of a depth and of a kind that chills the heart... against the darkness that eddies and gathers in this, the last book we will have from her hand, there is indeed redemptive light' Theo Dorgan, Dublin Review of Books 'This is a fitting tribute to a poet whose work has revised history as we know it and whose talent will be much missed.' Poetry Book Society Winter Bulletin 'The first poem in Boland's book, The Fire Gilder, is one of the best Irish poems of the past half-century.' Colm Tóibín, The Irish Times 'Truly consumable, enjoyable and emotive... all the things that great poetry should be.' Jasmine Reads, YouTube '[The Historians] zooms in with characteristic musicality and intelligence on what the stories that are often overlooked - those of women' *Rishi Dastidar, The Guardian* Poetry Books of the Year 2020 'It is, as came to be expected from Boland, filled with stories of ordinary Irish women, sensitively rendered in her understated verse. In revisiting the otherwise erased experiences of her subjects, Boland asks us to reconfigure our own understanding of the past, though she acknowledges the difficulties of that, too' The New Statesman 'There's a poignancy here that is hard to avoid... This modest collection is welcome and those who have not read Boland - few though they may be - will find here at least an introduction to her always-potent art. For others, it will serve as a coda to a poetic life well lived.' Books Ireland Magazine** 'It feels, reading it in the wake of her death, to be unsettlingly prophetic, a fitting close to the life's work of a great poet' Seán Hewitt, The Irish Times '... a rich, unsettling moral adventure in memory and responsibility.' Theo Dorgan Eavan Boland's A Journey with Two Maps: Becoming a Woman Poet contains essays both personal and public written in a tone urgent and wise, with astute observations on her own trajectory as a poet and the work of Elizabeth Bishop, Sylvia Plath and Paula Meehan, among others. *Colm Toibin, The Irish Times, Our Favourite Books of 2011*	Share this... Quick Links Carcanet Poetry Carcanet Classics Carcanet Fiction Carcanet Film Lives and Letters PN Review Video Carcanet Celebrates 50 Years! 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