Eavan Boland Biography

Eavan Boland was born in Dublin in 1944. At the age of six, she and her family moved to London, where Boland had her first experiences of anti-Irish sentiment. Her dealing with this hostility strengthened Boland's identification with her Irish heritage. She spoke of this time in her poem "An Irish Childhood in England: 1951."

She later returned to Dublin to attend school and published a pamphlet of poetry (23 Poems) after her graduation. Boland received her BA (Bachelor of Arts Degree) from Trinity College, Dublin in 1966. Since then she has held numerous teaching positions and published poetry, books and journal articles. Boland married in 1969 and has two children. Her experiences as a wife and mother have influenced her to write about the beauty and importance of the common.

She has taught at Trinity College, University College, and Bowdoin College, and was a member of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa.

Her books of poetry include Against Love Poems (W.W. Norton & Co., 2001), The Lost Land (1998), An Origin Like Water: Collected Poems 1967-1987 (1996), In a Time of Violence (1994), Outside History: Selected Poems 1980-1990 (1990), The Journey and Other Poems (1986), Night Feed (1982), and In Her Own Image (1980). In addition to her books of poetry, Boland is also the author of Object Lessons: The Life of the Woman and the Poet in Our Time (W. W. Norton, 1995), a volume of prose, and co-editor of The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms (W. W. Norton & Co., 2000).

Her awards include a Lannan Foundation Award in Poetry and an American Ireland Fund Literary Award. A regular reviewer for the Irish Times, she is currently professor of English at Stanford University.

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Quotes

"I have a great interest in myth because myth is an emotional technology wherby people can handle mysteries".

"I was there with two small children in a house and I could see what was potent and splendid and powerful happening every day in front of me and I wanted to express that".

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