Rita Kelly’s sixth collection of poetry takes its cues from Andrew Marvell’s ‘Thoughts in a Garden’, and finds a poet winding herself towards a very different kind of Paradise.
Kelly’s work is constantly beset by the political problems and cultural ramifications of 21st-century life, never far from her thoughts even when she withdraws into happiness.
Rita Kelly was born in Galway. She has lived most of her life in south-east Ireland, with periods in New York, London and Germany. Her most recent collection is Travelling West (Arlen House, 2010). She has been the recipient of the Sean Ó Riordain Oireachtas Award, the Irish Times Poetry Award and a Patrick & Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship.