My Self, My Muse: Irish Women Poets Reflect on Life and Art

A unique look into the minds and creative processes of contemporary Irish women poets, this book focuses on the transformation of their life experiences into poetry that blends personal identity with national identiry. It assembles many voices around common themes that are emerging to change Irish poetry permanently.

Patricia Boyle Haberstroh, whose book Women Creating Women: Contemporary Irish Women Poets was a Choice Outstanding Academic book in 1996, shows in this new work how nine of the most prolific Irish women writers generate their poetry, broadening our understanding of the context of the poems. She pairs each author's verse with a companion (and often autobiographical)
prose piece to illuminate the ways in which the poetry expresses the poet's personal
experience.

As women in a politically and religiously charged, male-dominated genre and country, these poets feel compelled to transcend daily life by articulating against the "norm." In this book, they describe the issues they confronted in their growth as poets and the strategies they developed to translate life into art. In linking these poets--drawn from Northern Ireland and England as well as the Republic
of Ireland--Haberstroh throws into relief the characteristics that define their unique, individual subjects, themes, and styles.

Author: Patricia Haberstroh
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Published: 07/01/2001
Pages: 167
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.57lbs
Size: 8.96h x 6.12w x 0.42d
ISBN: 9780815629108

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 09/01/2001 pg. 179
Choice 01/01/2002 pg. 881

About the Author
Patricia Boyle Haberstroh is professor of English at La Salle University. She is the author of Women Creating Women: Contemporary Irish Women Poets (also published by Syracuse University Press).