Women, Poetry and the Voice of a Nation

A pioneering study of women poets exploring the four laureate roles of the United Kingdom and Ireland. The concurrent tenures of Gillian Clarke as National Poet of Wales, Carol Ann Duffy as UK Poet Laureate, Liz Lochhead as Scots Makar and Paula Meehan as Ireland Professor of Poetry, defied historic rifts between women, poetry and nation. This book explores the extraordinary changes these women fought to achieve as each made her way from marginalised 'poetess' of the 1970s to laureate at the heart of cultural establishment in the 21st century. It looks at how they revitalised these public offices and explores their interventions in contemporary geopolitics and national self-understanding. It also considers how they shaped their roles by engaging with poetic icons of the past, by linking poetry and education and by joining poetry with politics. Anne Varty is a Professor in the English Department at Royal Holloway, University of London. She specialises in poetry by women since WW1, theatre since the Victorian era, and Oscar Wilde. She has edited two collections of essays about Liz Lochhead, most recently The Edinburgh Companion to Liz Lochhead (Edinburgh University Press, 2013).