Seán Mac Falls
Biography
Seán Mac Falls was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He moved to Shankill, Ireland in 1993 and studied Irish Literature and Folklore in Dublin. His poetry first appeared in print while abroad and was published at Poetry Ireland, and later in The London Magazine. He eventually returned to the states where he read for his Bachelor of Arts in English Literature at Dominican College of San Rafael, CA. He now makes his home in Port Angeles, WA.
He was twice sponsored for fellowships to both Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony by the eminent critic Harold Bloom and poet Galway Kinnell. In 2002 he was invited to read for the Masters Class of English at Simon Fraser University and was offered a place in their PhD poetics programme on full scholarship.
Belonging to no group or movement and operating outside of literary fashions, his brand of symbolist poetry can, at first reading, appear difficult. His deft use of allusion, startling diction and subtle punning display submerged metaphor in his work. The overall effect being a fresh implementation of Imagism.
He has published two books of poetry and several chapbooks. His first collection of poems, 20 Poems (2001 ISBN 1929812051), received extraordinary praise, first from Oxford University don, John Carey, who compared the poet to W. B. Yeats, and later from Harold Bloom. Several of the poems were Pushcart Prize nominations and appeared in major U.K. magazines such as Agenda, The London Magazine and Stand Magazine. A second book, The Blue Falcon, was published in 2006.
Seán Mac Falls was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He moved to Shankill, Ireland in 1993 and studied Irish Literature and Folklore in Dublin. His poetry first appeared in print while abroad and was published at Poetry Ireland, and later in The London Magazine. He eventually returned to the states where he read for his Bachelor of Arts in English Literature at Dominican College of San Rafael, CA. He now makes his home in Port Angeles, WA.
He was twice sponsored for fellowships to both Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony by the eminent critic Harold Bloom and poet Galway Kinnell. In 2002 he was invited to read for the Masters Class of English at Simon Fraser University and was offered a place in their PhD poetics programme on full scholarship.
Belonging to no group or movement and operating outside of literary fashions, his brand of symbolist poetry can, at first reading, appear difficult. His deft use of allusion, startling diction and subtle punning display submerged metaphor in his work. The overall effect being a fresh implementation of Imagism.
He has published two books of poetry and several chapbooks. His first collection of poems, 20 Poems (2001 ISBN 1929812051), received extraordinary praise, first from Oxford University don, John Carey, who compared the poet to W. B. Yeats, and later from Harold Bloom. Several of the poems were Pushcart Prize nominations and appeared in major U.K. magazines such as Agenda, The London Magazine and Stand Magazine. A second book, The Blue Falcon, was published in 2006.