Michael Longley Explained

Michael Longley
Birth Date:	27 July 1939
Birth Place:	Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
Education:	Royal Belfast Academical Institution ('Inst')
Alma Mater:	Trinity College, Dublin (TCD)
Awards:	Whitbread Poetry Prize T. S. Eliot Prize Hawthornden Prize

Michael Longley, (born 27 July 1939, Belfast, Northern Ireland), is an Irish poet.

Life and career

One of twin boys,^[1] Michael Longley was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, to English parents, Longley was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, and subsequently read Classics at Trinity College, Dublin, where he edited Icarus. He was the Ireland Professor of Poetry from 2007 to 2010, a cross-border academic post set up in 1998, previously held by John Montague, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, and Paul Durcan. He was succeeded in 2010 by Harry Clifton.^[2] North American editions of Longley's work are published by Wake Forest University Press.

Over 50 years, he has spent much time in Carrigskeewaun, County Mayo, which has inspired much of his poetry.^[3]

His wife, Edna, is a critic on modern Irish and British poetry.^[4] They have three children. Their daughter is the artist Sarah Longley. An atheist, Longley describes himself as a "sentimental" disbeliever.^[5]

On 14 January 2014, he participated in the BBC Radio 3 series The Essay – Letters to a Young Poet. Taking Rainer Maria Rilke's classic text Letters to a Young Poet as inspiration, leading poets wrote a letter to a protege.^[6] Longley has provided readings of his poetry for the Irish Poetry Reading Archive (UCD).

In 1994, Longley wrote his most famous poem, 'Ceasefire'. The poem was written in hope of a ceasefire between the IRA and British Unionist Forces, and was released only one day before one came about.^[7] The poem adapts a famous scene from the Iliad, where King Priam begs for the body of his son back from the warrior Achilles.

His twin brother, Peter, died in 2013/14. Longley dedicated the second half of The Stairwell (2014), his tenth collection, to him.

Awards and honours

Gorse Fires (1991) won the Whitbread Poetry Prize. The Weather in Japan (2000) won the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Hawthornden Prize.^[8] It also brought him the inaugural Yakamochi Medal in 2018.^[9] He holds honorary doctorates from Queen's University Belfast (1995) and Trinity College, Dublin (1999) and was the 2001 recipient of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry.^[10] Longley was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2010 Birthday Honours.

Longley won a 2011 London Awards for Art and Performance. His collection A Hundred Doors won the Poetry Now Award in September 2012.^[11]

His 2014 collection, The Stairwell, won the 2015 International Griffin Poetry Prize.^[12] In 2015, he received the Ulster Tatler Lifetime Achievement Award.^[13] He was awarded the PEN Pinter Prize in 2017. The Chair of the judges, Don Paterson, said: "For decades now his effortlessly lyric and fluent poetry has been wholly suffused with the qualities of humanity, humility and compassion, never shying away from the moral complexity that comes from seeing both sides of an argument."^[14]

In 2015 Longley was elected a Freeman of the City of Belfast.^[15] In 2018, he was made an honorary fellow of Trinity College Dublin.^[16]

List of works

• Ten Poems (1965), Belfast: Festival Publications
• Secret Marriages: Nine Short Poems (1968), Manchester: Phoenix Press
• No Continuing City (1969), London: Macmillan: New York: Dufour Editions
• Lares (1972) Woodford Green, London: Poet & Printer
• An Exploded View (1973), London: Victor Gollancz
• Fishing in the Sky: Love Poems (1975), London: Poet & Printer
• Man Lying on a Wall (1976), London: Victor Gollancz; (1977) New York: Transatlantic Arts
• The Echo Gate (1979) London: Seeker & Warburg; New York: Random House
• Selected Poems 1963–1980 (1981), Winston-Salem, USA: Wake Forest University Press
• Patchwork (1981), Dublin: The Gallery Press
• Poems 1963–1983 (1985), Edinburgh: The Salamander Press; Dublin: The Gallery Press; (1987) Winston-Salem, USA: Wake Forest University Press,
• Gorse Fires (1991), London: Seeker & Warburg; Winston-Salem, USA: Wake Forest University Press
• Baucis and Philemon: After Ovid (1993), London: Poet & Printer
• Birds and Flowers: Poems (1994), Edinburgh: Morning Star
• Tuppeny Stung: Autobiographical Chapters (1994), Belfast: Lagan Press
• The Ghost Orchid (1995), London: Jonathan Cape; (1996) Winston-Salem, USA: Wake Forest University Press
• Ship of the Wind (1997), Dublin: Poetry Ireland
• Broken Dishes (1998), Newry, Northern Ireland: Abbey Press
• Selected Poems (1998), London: Jonathan Cape; (1999) Winston-Salem, USA: Wake Forest University Press
• Out of the Cold (1999), Newry, Northern Ireland: Abbey Press
• The Weather in Japan (2000), London: Jonathan Cape; Winston-Salem, USA: Wake Forest University Press
• Cenotaph of Snow: Sixty Poems About War (2003), London: Enitharmon Press
• Snow Water (2004), London: Jonathan Cape; Winston-Salem, USA: Wake Forest University Press
• The Rope-Makers (2005), London: Enitharmon Press
• Collected Poems (2006), London: Jonathan Cape; (2007), Winston-Salem, USA: Wake Forest University Press
• A Jovial Hullabaloo (2008), London: Enitharmon Press
• A Hundred Doors (2011), London: Jonathan Cape; Winston-Salem, USA: Wake Forest University Press
• The Stairwell (2014), London: Jonathan Cape; Winston-Salem, USA: Wake Forest University Press
• One Wide Expanse (2015), Dublin: University College Dublin Press
• Sea Asters (2015), published by Andrew J Moorhouse – Fine Press Poetry
• The Dipper's Range (2016), Rochdale, UK: Andrew J Moorhouse, Fine Press Poetry
• Twelve Poems (2016), Thame, Oxford: Clutag Press
• Angel Hill (2017), London: Jonathan Cape; Winston-Salem, USA: Wake Forest University Press
• Sidelines: Selected Prose (2017), London: Enitharmon Press
• Ghetto (2019), Rochdale, UK: Andrew J Moorhouse, Fine Press Poetry
• The Candlelight Master (2020), London: Jonathan Cape; Winston-Salem, USA: Wake Forest University Press
• Homer's Octopus (2020), Rochdale, UK: Andrew J Moorhouse, Fine Press Poetry
• Metamorphoses (2022), Rochdale, UK: Andrew J Moorhouse, Fine Press Poetry
• Canticle (2022), Rochdale, UK: Andrew J Moorhouse, Fine Press Poetry
• The Slain Birds (2022), London: Jonathan Cape
• Birds & Flowers (2024), Rochdale, UK: Andrew J Moorhouse, Fine Press Poetry

See also

• List of Northern Irish writers

Further reading

• Allen, Michael, ed. Options: The Poetry of Michael Longley, Éire-Ireland 10.4 (1975): pp. 129–35.
• Allen Randolph, Jody. "Michael Longley, February 2010". Close to the Next Moment: Interviews from a Changing Ireland. Manchester: Carcanet, 2010.
• Allen Randolph, Jody and Douglas Archibald, eds. Special Issue on Michael Longley. Colby Quarterly 39.3 (September 2003).
• Brearton, Fran. Reading Michael Longley. Bloodaxe, 2006.
• Clyde, Tom, ed. Special Issue on Michael Longley. Honest Ulsterman 110 (Summer 2001).
• Peacock, Alan J. and Kathleen Devine, eds. The Poetry of Michael Longley: Ulster Editions and Monographs 10. Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, England: Colin Smythe, 2000.
• Robertson, Robin, ed. Love Poet, Carpenter: Michael Longley at Seventy. London: Enitharmon Press, 2009.
• Russell, Richard Rankin. Poetry and Peace: Michael Longley, Seamus Heaney, and Northern Ireland. South Bend, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2010.

External links

• (contains a "Critical Perspective" section)
• Video readings in the Irish Poetry Reading Archive, UCD Digital Library, University College Dublin
  • Wake Forest University Press North American publisher of Longley
• Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery
• Poetry archive profile and poems written and audio
• Ulster Museum portrait
• Audio interview by Krista Tippett
• Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University: Michael Longley papers, 1960-2000

Notes and References

1. Web site: 2014-08-03 . The Stairwell review – Michael Longley's shortcuts to the heart . 2022-03-11 . The Guardian . Kate. Kellaway. Kate Kellaway. en.
2. Web site: Longley new professor of poetry. bbc.co.uk. 7 September 2007. 26 July 2020.
3. Web site: An imagination nourished by the landscape of the west . www.irishtimes.com . Michael. Viney. 17 July 2009. 9 August 2020.
4. http://www.wfu.edu/wfupress/authors.php Wake Forest University Press
5. News: A Hundred Doors by Michael Longley – review Michael Longley's reverence for the living and the dead is as evident as ever. Sean. O'Brien. The Guardian. 9 April 2011. 26 July 2020.
6. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03pdg5b/The_Essay_Letters_to_a_Young_Poet_Michael_Longley "The Essay – Letters to a Young Poet"
7. Book: Alden . Maureen . Torrance . Isabelle . O'Rourke . Donncha . Classics and Irish Politics, 1916-2016 . 2020 . Oxford University Press . Oxford . 308 . 26 July 2024.
8. Web site: Michael Longley. 16 January 2018. Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation. 26 July 2020.
9. Web site: Ist Yakamochi Medal Award Decision . www.koshibun.jp . 8 August 2020.
10. Web site: Medal crowns Belfast poet's renaissance . Maev. Kennedy. Maev Kennedy. www.theguardian.com . 24 April 2001 . 8 August 2020.
11. News: Michael Longley wins €5,000 poetry prize. The Irish Times. Arminta. Wallace. 8 September 2012.
12. Web site: Michael Longley wins Griffin International Poetry Prize . Martin. Doyle. www.irishtimes.com . 5 June 2015. 8 August 2020.
13. News: Poet Michael Longley's lifetime achievement gong at Ulster Tatler awards . . 18 September 2015. 8 August 2020.
14. News: Michael Longley wins PEN Pinter Prize for unflinching unswerving poetry . Danuta. Kean. The Guardian . 1 June 2017.
15. Book: Publisher's note Angel Hill.
16. Web site: TRINITY MONDAY 2018 - FELLOWS AND SCHOLARS . 9 April 2018 . www.tcd.ie . Trinity College Dublin . 2022-01-27 .