Magnum Mysterium - Paperback

by Julie O'Callaghan (Author)

Magnum Mysterium is Irish American poet Julie O'Callaghan's first collection since Tell Me This Is Normal: New & Selected Poems (2008). Her new poems have evolved from the early monologues - written in American demotic - to poems of heartache on the death of her husband, the poet Dennis O'Driscoll. But even in these harrowing poems she never loses her ear for the absurdities of modern life - including the grieving process where she can "see" her husband alive and doing what he loves. In Magnum Mysterium Julie O'Callaghan has continued writing poems which 'seem effortless and are immediately accessible and achieve great emotional weight by the lightest of means' (Michael Hartnett Award citation)

Author Biography

Born in Chicago in 1954, Julie O'Callaghan has lived in Ireland since 1974. Her collections of poetry include Edible Anecdotes (Dolmen Press, 1983), a Poetry Book Society Recommendation; What's What (Bloodaxe Books, 1991), a Poetry Book Society Choice; No Can Do (Bloodaxe Books, 2000), a Poetry Book Society Recommendation; Tell Me This Is Normal: New & Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, 2008), a Poetry Book Society Recommendation; and Magnum Mysterium, is published by Bloodaxe in 2020. Her books of poetry for older children include Taking My Pen for a Walk (Orchard Books, 1988), Two Barks (Bloodaxe Books, 1998) and The Book of Whispers (Faber & Faber, 2006). She has received the Michael Hartnett Award for poetry and is a member of the Irish academy of arts, Aosdána.