Collection: Michael Donaghy

The death of Michael Donaghy (1954-2004) robbed the poetry world of one of its most talented and charismatic practitioners. Born in New York of Irish descent, Donaghy grew up in the Bronx where his exposure to Irish culture instilled in him a life-long love of its traditional music. He studied at Fordham University and Chicago University where he edited The Chicago Review. In 1985 he moved to London with fellow musician, Maddy Paxman, whom he married in 2003. The poetry collections he published in the UK, Shibboleth (1988), Errata (1993) and Conjure (2000), established his reputation as a meticulous craftsmen with a mercurial imagination and attracted many plaudits including the Geoffrey Faber and Cholmondeley awards and the Whitbread and Forward Prizes.