The Writing Program welcomes accomplished Irish poet Joan McBreen for a reading of her poetry followed by a wine and cheese reception.

Joan McBreen's poetry collections include: The Wind Beyond the Wall (1990), A Walled Garden in Moylough (1995), Winter in the Eye: New & Selected Poems (2003) and Heather Island (2009, reprinted 2013).

McBreen was awarded an MA from University College, Dublin in 1997.

Her poetry has been published widely in Ireland and abroad and has been broadcast, anthologized, and translated into many languages. She has given readings and talks at many universities in the United States, including Emory, Villanova, De Paul (Chicago), Cleveland State, Lenoir-Rhynne in Hickory, N.C., and the University of Missouri-St. Louis. In 2010 she went on a six-week reading tour through Nebraska, Iowa, and Alabama, and in 2012 she read at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn., and at the University of Minnesota, Duluth.

McBreen's publications also include her 1999 anthology anthology The White Page/An Bhileog Bhán: Twentieth-Century Irish Women Poets, which is in its third reprint, and her 2009 anthology The Watchful Heart: A New Generation of Irish Poets: Poems and Essays. In 2004 she released a CD, The Long Light on the Land: Selected Poems, read to a background of traditional Irish airs and classical music. She has been involved for many years with Irish literary festivals including the Yeats International Summer School, Sligo, Clifden Arts Festival, Listowel Writers’ Week, and the Cúirt International Festival of Literature, Galway. She serves on the board of Poetry Ireland.

Joan McBreen’s papers are at the Stuart A. Rose Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Library, Emory University, Atlanta.