A Herring Famine

In poems of poised lyricism, the book revealed an obsession with the line between beauty and violence, but also a fear of erasure, finding consolation in poetry’s potential to commemorate and commit to memory… Like Heaney’s, O’Riordan’s best poems reveal an unusually precise attention to the texture, weight and subtle music of language. “Glance from the barrel where the bones are bled”, begins “Ghost Ranch”. Read those lines of O’Riordan’s aloud and they force your whole mouth into movement, a trick that the Irish master all but perfected, bringing language to life… O’Riordan has a genuine gift. – Ben Wilkinson * Guardian *Adam O’Riordan’s poems combine verbal grace with powerful feelings and a keen intelligence that extends from the personal to the political with admirable ease – James LasdunElegant, beautifully-turned poems that match an easy technique with a sophisticated intelligence – Nick LairdAdam O’Riordan is the real thing – Hugo Williams

Adam O’Riordan was born in Manchester in 1982, where he currently lives. In 2008 he became the youngest Poet-in-Residence at The Wordsworth Trust, the Centre for British Romanticism. His first collection In the Flesh (2010) win a Somerset Maugham Award. He is the Academic Director of the Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University.

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