Prize-winning Irish poet inspired by native seacoast

by Tom Crann, Minnesota Public Radio

Poet Mary O'Malley comes from Connemara, a craggy, windswept area of the West of Ireland. It's where the rocks meet the sea, and life moves to the rhythm of the ancient Irish language. And she brings that sensibility, and that place, to her poetry. But she also brings a modern, feminist eye for Ireland's institutions combined with an international perspective.

About her own work she has said she tries to "start again and tell the truth another way." That sensibility caught the eye of the Center for Irish Studies at the University of Saint Thomas, in St. Paul. They've awarded her the 13th annual Lawrence O'Shaughnessy Award for Poetry.

O'Malley is in Saint Paul for a public reading tonight at the University of Saint Thomas in St. Paul at 7:30.

Mary O'Malley told Tom Crann a bit more about her home landscape, and how it haunts her work.

Broadcast Dates

• All Things Considered, 04/17/2009, 4:54 p.m.