Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin (; born 1942) is an Irish poet and academic. She was the Ireland Professor of Poetry (2016–19).

Biography

Ní Chuilleanáin was born in Cork in 1942, the daughter of Eilís Dillon and Professor Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin. She was educated at

University College Cork University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Cork (UCC) () is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland, and located in Cork (city), Cork. The university was founded in 1845 as one of three Queen's Universit ...

and the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

. She lived in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

with her late husband Macdara Woods; they have one son, Niall Woods. She is a Fellow of

Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...

and an emeritus professor of the School of English which she joined in 1966. Her broad academic interests (notably her specialism in Renaissance literature and her interest in translation) are reflected in her poetry. She retired from full-time teaching in 2011 and a selection of her poems are currently on the syllabus for the Leaving Certificate, the final state examination for secondary school students. Ní Chuilleanáin is a member of

Aosdána Aosdána ( , ; from , 'people of the arts') is an Irish association or academy of artists, each of whom must have produced a distinguished body of work of genuine originality. It was created in 1981 by the country's Arts Council on the initiati ...

. She is a founder of the literary magazine '' Cyphers,'' alongside Pearse Hutchinson, Macdara Woods and

Leland Bardwell Constance Olive Leland Bardwell (25 February 1922 – 28 June 2016) was an Irish poet, novelist, and playwright. She was part of the literary scene in London and later Dublin, where she was an editor of literary magazines ''Hibernia'' and '' Cyp ...

. She continues to edit the magazine. She has contributed several recitations of her poems, including 'Small' (written after the death of Pearse Hutchinson), to the Irish Poetry Reading Archive.

Awards

Ní Chuilleanáin's first collection won the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award in 1973. In 2010 ''The Sun-fish'' was the winner of the Canadian-based International

Griffin Poetry Prize The Griffin Poetry Prize is a Canadian poetry award. It was founded in 2000 by businessman and philanthropist Scott Griffin. Before 2022, two separate awards went to one Canadian and one international poet who writes in the English language. I ...

and was shortlisted for the Poetry Now Award. In 2016, she was appointed Ireland Professor of Poetry by the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins.

Publications

Poetry collections

Ní Chuilleanáin publishes with the Gallery Press in Ireland and Wake Forest University Press in the United States. * 1972: ''Acts and Monuments'', Dublin: The Gallery Press. * 1975: ''Site of Ambush'', Dublin: The Gallery Press. * 1977: ''The Second Voyage'', Dublin: The Gallery Press; Winston-Salem, NC: Wake Forest University Press, 1977, 1991. * 1981: ''The Rose Geranium'', Dublin: The Gallery Press. * 1986: ''The Second Voyage'', Dublin: The Gallery Press; Newcastle upon Tyne: Bloodaxe Books; Winston-Salem, Wake Forest University Press, 1991. * 1989: ''The Magdalene Sermon'', Oldcastle: The Gallery Press (shortlisted for the ''

Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It was launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is Ireland's leading n ...

''/

Aer Lingus Aer Lingus ( ; an anglicisation of the Irish language, Irish , meaning "air fleet") is an Irish airline company which is the flag carrier of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Founded by the Irish Government, it was privatised between 2006 and 201 ...

Award).Web page titled "Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin"
at Poetry International website, accessed 3 May 2008 * 1994: ''The Brazen Serpent'', Oldcastle: The Gallery Press; Winston-Salem, North Carolina: Wake Forest University Press, 1995. * 2001: ''The Girl Who Married the Reindeer'', Oldcastle: The Gallery Press; Winston-Salem, North Carolina: Wake Forest University Press, 2002. * 2008: ''Selected Poems'', Oldcastle: Gallery Press; London: Faber and Faber; Winston-Salem, North Carolina: Wake Forest University Press, 2009. * 2009: ''The Sun-fish'', Oldcastle: Gallery Press; Winston-Salem, NC: Wake Forest University Press, 2010 (winner of the 2010 International

). * 2015: ''The Boys of Bluehill'', Oldcastle: Gallery Press; Winston-Salem, NC: Wake Forest University Press. * 2020: ''Collected Poems'', Oldcastle: Gallery Press; Winston-Salem, NC: Wake Forest University Press.

Translations

* 1999: ''The Water Horse: Poems in Irish by Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill with Translations into English by

Medbh McGuckian Medbh McGuckian (born as Maeve McCaughan on 12 August 1950) is a poet from Northern Ireland. Biography She was born the third of six children as Maeve McCaughan to Hugh and Margaret McCaughan in North Belfast. Her father was a school headmaste ...

and Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin'', Oldcastle: The Gallery Press; Winston-Salem, North Carolina: Wake Forest University Press, 2003. * 2005: ''Verbale'' by Michele Ranchetti, translated by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin and others, Dublin: Instituto Italiano di Cultura. * 2005: ''After the Raising of Lazarus: Poems Translated from the Romanian by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin'', poems by Ileana Mălăncioiu, Cork: Southword Editions. * 2010: Contributions in ''The Word Exchange: Anglo-Saxon Poems in Translation'', in Greg Delanty, Michael Matto eds., New York: W. W. Norton & Company. * 2010: ''Legend of the Walled Up Wife'' by Ileana Mălăncioiu, translated from the Romanian by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press. In addition to the above, Ní Chuilleanáin's poetry is widely anthologised.

Selected academic writing

* 2001: ''As I Was Among Captives: Joseph Campbell's Prison Diary, 1922-23'', Cork: Cork University Press. * 2003: ''The Wilde Legacy'', ed., Dublin: Four Courts Press. * 2010: ''Heresy and Orthodoxy in Early English Literature, 1350-1680'', ed., with John Flood, Dublin: Four Courts Press. * 2009: ''Translation and Censorship: Patterns of Communication and Interference'', ed., with Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin and David Parris, Dublin: Four Courts Press. * 2013: ''Translation, Right or Wrong'', ed., with Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin and Susana Bayó Belenguer, Dublin: Four Courts Press.

Exhibitions

* 2024: 'Ireland's Border Culture' Archive at Trinity College Dublin

Notes and references

External links

Wake Forest University Press Web page
on Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin
Griffin Poetry Prize biography

Griffin Poetry Prize reading, including video clip

The Griffin Poetry Prize Questionnaire
with Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin in the ''National Post''
Poetry Foundation
* Poetry readings available i
the Irish Poetry Reading ArchiveUCD Digital LibraryUniversity College Dublin

Ireland's Border Culture
(2024) {{DEFAULTSORT:Ni Chuilleanain, Eilean 1942 births Living people 20th-century Irish poets 21st-century Irish poets Alumni of the University of Oxford Aosdána members Saoithe Fellows of Trinity College Dublin Irish translators Irish women poets Academics of Trinity College Dublin Writers from Cork (city) Translators from Irish Translators from Old English Translators from Romanian Alumni of University College Cork 20th-century Irish translators 21st-century translators 20th-century Irish women writers 21st-century Irish women writers Poetry instructors