Desmond Egan, founder and artistic director of the Gerard Manley Hopkins International Festival, will read from his new book. This free, public event is part of an Irish Poetry day, co-sponsored by the English Department in the College of Arts and Sciences, Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute and the Irish Sstudies Minor. Copies of Egan’s latest work will be available for purchase.
Egan, a full-time writer who lives near Newbridge in County Kildare, has written a wide range of poetry and prose publications as well as translations and books of prose. His poem, “Peace,” was translated into 35 languages as part of the “Peace for the Millennium” celebration. To date, Egan has published 23 poetry collections; two of prose and two translations of Greek plays. Collections of his poetry have appeared in book form in France, Germany, Japan, China, Italy, Greece, the Netherlands, Poland, Luxembourg, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Russia and Bulgaria. Two documentary films on Egan’s poetry, “Desmond Egan: Through the Eyes of a Poet,” and “Dual-Language Multimedia Presentation DESpectrum,” have been produced. Egan has won numerous awards for his poetry during his career, including the Macedonian Poetry Prize, the Bologna Literary Award, The Farrell Prize, The Chicago Haymarket Literary Award and National Poetry Foundation of USA Award.