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Born in 1941, Eamon Grennan is a Dublin native and Irish citizen who has lived in the United States for over thirty years. He was educated at University College in Dublin and Harvard University.  His collections include: Matter of Fact (Graywolf Press, 2008); The Quick of It, (2005); Renvyle, Winter (special limited edition, 2003); Still Life with Waterfall (2002), winner of the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize; Selected & New Poems (2000); Relations: New & Selected Poems (1998); So It Goes (1995), a finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize; As If It Matters (1992); What Light There Is and Other Poems (1989), a finalist for a Los Angeles Times Book Prize; What Light There Is (1987); and Wildly for Days (1983).  His Leopardi: Selected Poems (Princeton University Press, 1997) won the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation, and he has published a collection of critical essays, Facing the Music: Irish Poetry in the Twentieth Century (Creighton University Press, 1999).  In his citation for the 2003 Lenore Marshall Award, poet Robert Wrigley wrote, “Grennan would have us know—no, would have us see, feel, hear, taste, and smell—that the world, moment by ordinary or agonizing moment, lies chock-full with its own clarifications and rewards.” As well as a number of Pushcart Prizes, he has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation.  He taught at Vassar College until his retirement. He lives in Poughkeepsie, and spends as much time as he can in the West of Ireland.

After an acting career, then a stint producing corporate videos and conferences, Gretl Claggett spent a decade as a saleswoman in the incentive (or “performance improvement”) industry. She’s what you might call a learning junkie, with MFAs in theater, poetry and nonfiction. She also possesses a passion for the healing arts, and is certified as a neurofeedback trainer and hypnotist. Drawing from this eclectic background—through writing, speaking and leading workshops — her mission is to help others create more authentic lives: personally and professionally.

Steve Griffiths was born on Anglesey, off the Welsh coast, and lives in London.  He will be reading from his sixth poetry collection, ‘Surfacing’, published by Cinnamon Press in late 2011.  Philip Gross, winner of the TS Eliot poetry prize in 2010, has written about Steve’s new book:

‘This is a varied but coherent collection by a subtle and deeply intelligent writer who can address human concerns like the intimate recall of childhood or the challenges of middle age without sentimentality........ His attention to detail and to nuance earns the poems a certain authority.......  It is an achievement to evoke the sensual qualities of a flock of starlings in flight while considering form and content in the widest sense; the complex of intellect and emotion in the phrase ‘mathematical / valedictory joy’ is a bold achievement’.

His previous book, ‘An Elusive State’ (Cinnamon, 2008), explores an imaginary civilisation.  Laura Thomas, a BBC producer who worked on performance from the book, described it thus: ‘It’s a parallel universe, a magical epic, a comfort, a mystery”. 

His Selected Poems were published by Seren in 1993.  This was followed by a 15-year-long break from publishing.  He works as a researcher and consultant in health and social policy, and is widely published in that field.  He is a campaigner against erosion of financial benefits for people with long-term health conditions in the UK. 

A note on ‘Surfacing’

‘Surfacing’ traces a movement from darkness into light.  It is not a simple movement.  It begins underground, in an abandoned place, where there are stirrings, occasional explosions into an inexplicably dazzling light, an insistence on miracles of optimism.  The tone shifts towards a recurrent note of affirmation in which darkness has its place, and is sometimes essential.  The poems look back, far back: ‘The Shelveian Event’ moves between the violence of shifting continents and the fossilised remains of individual raindrops; like many of these poems, it’s a celebration of the creation.  There is a repeated focus on childhood.  From all kinds of perspectives, Steve Griffiths is interested in how we came to be what we are.  He shines occasional sharp lights on the contemporary: being rejected for a job and knowing why; injustice in the Middle East; the decimation of wild birds; a woman singing hymns loudly in a London park. 

Guest Host Susan Tepper.