Selected Poems
Published on 30. April 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
134 pages
978-1-80017-550-1 (ISBN)
Description
Leontia Flynn is one of the key poets of her generation. This first selection of her work reveals how her poetry, so often pained, funny, and heartfelt, also describes a life lived in the first quarter of the twenty-first century with unmistakable freshness and vivid clarity. Flynn brings dark humour and tenderness to her characteristic subjects: childhood inheritance, the North of Ireland and its history, physical fragility, mothers and single motherhood, love and loss.
Bringing together work from her five previous collections, this Selected Poems, in its variety of forms, registers the trajectory of a life: the awful and exhilarating experiment of existing in a turbulent world.
Bringing together work from her five previous collections, this Selected Poems, in its variety of forms, registers the trajectory of a life: the awful and exhilarating experiment of existing in a turbulent world.
Reviews / Votes
'These poems make terrific company; restless, witty, privately brilliant. Like a good conversationalist Leontia Flynn makes the reader feel smart, understood, a little further on.'Anne Enright 'When I laugh at these poems it's not because they "amuse" me as such, but because they are right, witty, insightful and sharp. When I'm moved by them, it's not because they are sentimental - on the contrary. I'm moved because the poems are written with a clear eye, a clear ear, and an equal measure of grace and grit.'
Tara Bergin, PN Review 'One of the most accomplished poets of her generation.'
The Guardian 'Her poetry is delightfully funny and yet deeply serious, musing on ageing, death and the difficult balancing act of parenthood. What's remarkable is how sustained her skill is, how consistent her fascinations. Flynn was a force to marvel at 20 years ago, and has continued to astonish us since.'
'The best poetry books of 2026' The Telegraph 'These poems speak of the fitful and anxious and easily bored but somehow end up being beautifully ordered, stylishly made, spikily musical.'
Declan Ryan, The Irish Times 'She's witty, both high-flown and grounded, with odes to motorway service stations, poultry processing plants and Ikea.'
Suzi Feay, Financial Times 'This assembly is a glorious reintroduction to her mordant wit, imaginative image-making and unerring ability to puncture pretension.'
Rishi Dastidar, the Guardian
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Carcanet Press Ltd
Dimensions
Height: 135 mm
Width: 216 mm
Thickness: 13 mm
Weight
160 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-80017-550-1 (9781800175501)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
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Person
Leontia Flynn has published five full-length poetry collections and been recognised as a leading voice in contemporary poetry, in the North of Ireland and beyond. Her first collection These Days (2004) won an Eric Gregory award in manuscript, the Forward prize for best First Collection, and was shortlisted for the Whitbread (Costa) Poetry Prize. The same year Leontia Flynn was named one of twenty 'Next Generation' poets by the Poetry Book Society in association with The Guardian. She has since won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the Irish Times poetry prize, a Cholmondeley Award, and twice been nominated for the T S Eliot Prize. She has also published works of criticism and several poetry pamphlets, and was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2022. She lives in Belfast and is a professor at Queen's University.