Poetry. In juxtaposing poem sequences respective to the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the breakdown of a family, AN EDUCATED HEART raises again the troublesome question of the relationship between the public and the private, in the specific context of a woman's voice. While the two sequences are clearly delineated, the collection also includes poems which could refer to family life, or war, or both. The poems relating to Iraq are by and large composed of fragments of Internet coverage of the war, and an aesthetic of collage, fragmentation, and brokenness pervades the book.

Author City: Providence, RI USA

Mairéad Byrne is an Irish poet who immigrated to the United States in 1994. She earned a PhD in English Literature from Purdue University in 2001 and lives with her two daughters in Providence, Rhode Island, where she teaches poetry at Rhode Island School of Design. She is the author of four collections, THE BEST OF (WHAT'S LEFT OF) HEAVEN (Publishing Genius Press, 2010), TALK POETRY (Miami University Press, 2007), SOS Poetry (/ubu Editions, 2007), and Nelson & The Huruburu Bird (Wild Honey Press, 2003), five chapbooks, and two plays.