{"title":"Michael Heffernan","description":"Michael Heffernan was born in 1942 in Detroit, and grew up there, in a multi-ethnic working-class neighborhood, eight blocks from the Detroit River and Canada. He often dreams of border crossings. He has frequently traveled abroad, from Ireland to the Dodecanese during the 60s, to the Great Wall approaching Inner Mongolia in 2002.\n\nHe studied at the University of Detroit (A.B.) and the University of Massachusetts (Ph.D.). Since then he has resided mainly in Michigan, Kansas and Arkansas. He has taught the study and practice of poetry at the University of Arkansas (Fayetteville) since 1986. He regularly offers courses in Shakespeare, Yeats, Frost and Stevens.\n\nHe began writing poems in 1958. After completing his doctorate in 1970, with a dissertation on William Carlos Williams, he found steady work, and was able to return to his own writing. He soon found that traditional poetic forms could still open routes toward invention and discovery. His poems began to contain narratives, characters, masks, and free imaginations, expressing themselves in new dance-steps on the ground trod by the iamb. These acts of language, of words only, offered a new knowledge of reality, along with a vision of freedom and a kind of worldly holiness.\n\nHis books include \u003cem\u003eThe Cry of Oliver Hardy\u003c\/em\u003e (1979), \u003cem\u003eTo the Wreakers of Havoc\u003c\/em\u003e (1984), both recently reissued by the University of Georgia Press; \u003cem\u003eThe Man at Home\u003c\/em\u003e (Arkansas, 1988); \u003cem\u003eLove's Answer\u003c\/em\u003e (Iowa Poetry Prize, 1994); \u003cem\u003eThe Night Breeze Off the Ocean\u003c\/em\u003e (Eastern Washington University Press, 2005), along with his two other books from Salmon, \u003cem\u003eThe Back Road to Arcadia\u003c\/em\u003e (1994) and \u003cem\u003eThe Odor of Sanctity\u003c\/em\u003e (2008).\n\nHis work has earned three fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (US), two Pushcart Prizes, and the Porter Prize for Literary Excellence.\n\nHe and his wife, Ann, love being in Ireland. They have four grown children, three sons and a daughter.\n","products":[{"product_id":"dogs-singing-a-tribute-anthology","title":"Dogs Singing: A Tribute Anthology","description":"\u003ci\u003eDogs Singing: A Tribute Anthology\u003c\/i\u003e brings together poems which highlight and examine and celebrate the canine world. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eContributors include Thomas Lynch, Alicia Ostriker, Maxine Kumin, Neil Astley, Andrea Cohen, Michael Heffernan, William Matthews, Richard Murphy, Kevin Simmonds, Sebastian Matthews, Stephen Dobyns, Theodore Deppe, Rita Ann Higgins, Matthew Sweeney, Pat Boran, Theo Dorgan, Paula Meehan, Pam Uschuk, Jim Rogers and Jordan Taylor.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"First love, enduring love; the witness, the stoic, the companion, the protector, the better part of us, the abiding presence, the warrior, the survivor, the guardian angel.  Here is a big book of many poems, all inspired, devoted, motivated by a sacred bond that happens, the supreme privilege, that something far bigger than romance - a relationship with a dog. Dogs do sing; they also smile, socialise, engage and celebrate, mark a homecoming in proper style, even if it’s only the return from the local grocery store; they sigh, but most of all they understand, they grieve, they mourn, they empathise, they remember...\"\u003cbr\u003eEileen Battersby, Arts Writer \u0026amp; Literary Correspondent, \u003ci\u003eThe Irish?Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJessie Lendennie\u003c\/b\u003e's prose poem \u003ci\u003eDaughter\u003c\/i\u003e was first published in 1988, followed in 1990 by \u003ci\u003eThe Salmon Guide to Poetry Publishing\u003c\/i\u003e and in 1992 by \u003ci\u003eThe Salmon Guide to Creative Writing in Ireland\u003c\/i\u003e. Her poetry has been anthologised in \u003ci\u003eIrish Poetry Now: Other Voices\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eUnveiling Treasures: The Attic Guide To The Published Works of Irish Women Literary Writers\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe White Page\/An Bhileog Bhan: Twentieth-Century Irish Women Poets\u003c\/i\u003e, among others. She has conducted workshops and given readings all over Ireland and the United States for many years. She is the co-founder and Managing Director of Salmon Poetry. In 2008, she edited \u003ci\u003eSalmon: A Journey in Poetry, 1981-2007\u003c\/i\u003e, an anthology of Salmon Poetry.  In 2009 she compiled and edited \u003ci\u003ePoetry: Reading it, Writing it, Publishing it\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Salmon Poetry","offers":[{"title":"Book","offer_id":1041064872,"sku":"9781907056505","price":15.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/2_2_0f5bc08b-60ea-43de-b3ed-986aa6299f0d.jpeg?v=1752238167"},{"product_id":"the-breaking-of-the-day","title":"The Breaking of the Day","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Breaking of the Day\u003c\/em\u003e is a book built around a 3-piece title sequence as Michael Heffernan, now in his seventies, reflects on life from his own backyard. The poems venture outwards to take in the whole of Ireland, northern Michigan and the shores of the Great Lakes, even a tumbledown Parisian backstreet. Together they convey an increasing uncertainty in the power of human testimony, seeking solace in the control of the classical metre and vision of the master poets who preceded him.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Like the Golden Gate Bridge and the Badlands of South Dakota, Michael Heffernan is a national treasure. By turns haunting, ethereal, quirky, and humorous, his poems never fail to delight.”\u003cbr\u003eMartha Silano\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e“Disarming poetry.” \u003cbr\u003eRon Slate\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMichael Heffernan\u003c\/strong\u003e was born and brought up in Detroit, Michigan. He has received several National Endowment for the Arts awards for his work, as well as two Pushcart Prizes and the Porter Prize for Literary Excellence. He regularly features on Garrison Keillor’s \u003cem\u003eWriter’s Almanac\u003c\/em\u003e radio show in the US. His most recent collections are \u003cem\u003eThe Odor of Sanctity\u003c\/em\u003e (Salmon, 2008) and \u003cem\u003eAt the Bureau of Divine Music\u003c\/em\u003e (2011). Since 1986 he has lived in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where he is a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Arkansas.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Salmon Poetry","offers":[{"title":"Book","offer_id":1041240088,"sku":"9781908836182","price":10.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/salmon_-_the_breaking_of_the_day_1_1.jpeg?v=1752237785"}],"url":"https:\/\/inpressbooks.co.uk\/collections\/michael-heffernan\/theo-dorgan.oembed","provider":"Inpress Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}