Poet Greg Delanty receives tributes from both sides of the Atlantic
By Buff Lindau
Rarely does a poet have a “collected poems” until later in life. But professor of English Greg Delanty achieved that honor before his 50th birthday with Collected Poems 1986-2006 (Carcanet 2006). And this year, when he turned 50, he was recognized with the publication of a double issue of a prestigious journal, Agenda: Atlantic Crossings, in his honor. The 262-page volume with tributes by poets from both sides of the Atlantic is emblazoned with “50th Birthday Celebration for Greg Delanty,” across the cover, along with a strong portrait of the poet.
About the honor, Delanty said, “It is a great thing for me that friends, some of whom I love, all of whom, as poets and writers I admire, have written articles and sent poems on my birthday and to have us all together in such a prestigious magazine. It is, perhaps, the nicest thing that has happened to me as a writer.”
Delanty has been recognized over the course of his career with the Patrick Kavanagh Award, considered Ireland’s most prestigious poetry prize, as well as a Guggenheim Fellowship, and publication of seven books: Cast in the Fire (1986), Southward (1992), American Wake (1995), The Hellbox (1998), The Blind Stitch (2002), Collected Poems 1986-2006 (2006), The Ship of Birth (2007).
Originally from Cork, Ireland, now a resident of Burlington, Delanty considers himself an involved citizen of both. He is a campus leader of the sustainability movement and an anti-war activist. Being involved in real life is central to his life as a poet. “The poems wouldn’t be true if I didn’t follow true in my life.”
Delanty “daringly mixes Cork slang, American drawl, classical allusions, mythological references, Biblical and liturgical language, Gaelic Irish and straight English, as well as puns and clichés into a linguistic hotpot,” says Patricia McCarthy in the introductory essay in Agenda.
Among the famous poets who hail Delanty are Nobel Laureates Seamus Heaney and Derek Walcott, former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins, Paul Muldoon, Galway Kinnell, and scores of others. It also contains eight pages of new poems by Delanty himself.
