John Boland


Life
Academic and critic; Irish Times ‘Book Worm’ columnist to 1997; named Arts Journalist of 1998; author of Brow Head (Newry: Abbey 1999), 60pp., issued with cover-note by Seamus Heaney.

[ top ]

Commentary
Rita Kelly, ‘The Sinew of Memory’, review of Brow Head, in Books Ireland (March 2000), p.64: ‘I think that =Heaney puts it very well when he says of Boland's poetry: “an awakened voice, new to itself and at risk, a mind taking the measure of itself and its memories”. [...] It is a very low-pitched voice, lots of humour, irony and self-sendup. [...] I find Boland's poetry very honest if somewhat bleak. There is someone inside calling, not loudly, to get out, to free itself. And the language in which this complex call is made, is disarmingly simple and accessible.’

[ top ]