Poetry. Winner of the American Book Award 1986. "Beautiful, simple, often heartbreaking poems about the big-city Irish, by a son of immigrants.... [Winch] undeniably has the gift--a blend of the two Jameses, Joyce and Farrell"--The Washington Post. "The poems completely move me as being Irish, they get the depth, the unspeaking of our very private people. The language is just right each time the way they pretend they are not poems. They rescue the lost emigrant culture, making a real Ireland and real myth out of Irish America. I am convinced it is a pioneer effort"--James Liddy.
Author City: SILVER SPRING, MD USA
Terence Winch has published five books of poems: FALLING OUT OF BED IN A ROOM WITH NO FLOOR (Hanging Loose Press, 2011); BOY DRINKERS (Hanging Loose Press, 2007); THE DRIFT OF THINGS (The Figures, 2001); IRISH MUSICIANS/AMERICAN FRIENDS (Coffee House Press, 1986), which won an American Book Award; and The Great Indoors (Story Line Press, 1995), which won the Columbia Book Award. THAT SPECIAL PLACE: NEW WORLD IRISH STORIES (Hanging Loose Press, 2004) is a collection of nonfiction pieces on his experiences playing traditional Irish music. He has also published a book of short stories called Contenders (Story Line Press, 1989) and numerous chapbooks. His work has appeared in many anthologies, including The Oxford Book of American Poetry (2006), Poetry 180 (2003), Best American Poetry (1997, 2003, 2007), and in such publications as The Paris Review, American Poetry Review, NEW AMERICAN WRITING, The World, The New Republic, Shiny, Verse, et al. He was the subject of a profile on NPR's All Things Considered and has been featured many times on Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac radio program. He has received an NEA Fellowship in poetry, as well as grants from the DC Commission on the Arts, the Maryland State Arts Commission, and the Fund for Poetry. The son of Irish immigrants to New York, Winch has also played Irish music all his life, recording three albums with his group Celtic Thunder. The band's second recording, featuring his popular song "When New York Was Irish," won the INDIE for Best Celtic Album.
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