Leontia Flynn

Leontia Flynn (born 1974) is an Irish poet born in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland. Flynn grew up in Ballyloughlin, south County Down, between the towns of Newcastle and Dundrum, very close to the well known Murlough Nature Reserve. After studying for a year at Trinity College Dublin, she completed a degree in English at Queen's University Belfast, followed by a Masters at Edinburgh, before returning to Belfast to write her PhD thesis on the poetry of Medbh McGuckian. She currently lives in Belfast.

Flynn won an Eric Gregory Award in 2001, and her first collection, "These Days", was published in 2004. It won that year's Forward Poetry Prize for 'Best First Collection'. In the same year Flynn was named as one the Next Generation poets by the Poetry Book Society. Flynn recently was awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature 2008 in recognition of her achievement and outstanding promise as a poet. Her new book of poems, "Drives", is due out in August.

In their review for "These Days", shortlisted for the Whitbread Award in Poetry 2004, Whitbread states: In one of the most strikingly original debuts in recent years, Leontia Flynn writes about Belfast and the north of Ireland with a precision and tenderness that is completely fresh. While her subject matter ranges from memories of childhood to the instabilities of adulthood, from the raw domestic to the restless pull of 'elsewhere', her theme throughout is a search for physical and mental well-being, for a way to live a life.

In its description of "Drives", Random House states: Her second collection of poetry is a book of restless journeys — real and imaginary — interspersed with sonnets on writers. Starting in Belfast, where she lives, she visits a number of cities in Europe and the States, each one the occasion for an elliptical postcard home to herself.

The Poetry Book Society comments on her inclusion in the Next Generation poets promotion: 'Her poems cover a wonderful range of subjects. She writes movingly about her father but is terrific at simply tugging away at a subject until it releases poetry... These are poems to move from room to room reading, just as we imagine they might have been written, by a poet remembering and discovering the world.'

Bibliography

*"These Days" Jonathan Cape 2004. ISBN 0-224-07197-1.
*"Drives" Jonathan Cape 2008. ISBN 0-224-08517-4.

External links

* [http://www.poetrybooks.co.uk/PBS/pbs_flynn_leontia.asp] - Naming It by Leontia Flynn. (Poetry Book Society website profile)