Vona Groarke
Vona Groarke was born in Edgeworthstown, Co Longford, in 1964, and grew up on a farm outside Athlone.
Her collections are Shale (Loughcrew, Co Meath, The Gallery Press, 1994); Other People’s Houses (The Gallery Press, 1999); Flight (The Gallery Press, 2002), which was shortlisted for the Forward Prize in 2002, and winner of the Michael Hartnett Award in 2003; Flight and Earlier Poems (North Carolina, Wake Forest University Press, 2004); and Juniper Street (The Gallery Press, 2006).
She has translated Lament for Art O’Leary (The Gallery Press, 2008), and edited and introduced The Deserted Village, by Oliver Goldsmith, illustrated by Blaise Drummond (The Gallery Press, 2002).
Among her awards are the Hennessy Award for Poetry, the Brendan Behan Memorial Prize, Strokestown International Poetry Award,and the Stand Magazine Poetry Prize.
She was co-holder of the Heimbold Chair in Irish Studies at Villanova University (Spring 2004).
She lives in Manchester where she teaches in the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester.