James Liddy
Fest City
with an afterword
by Michael S. Begnal
ISBN: 9780905223957
Bring me my banjo of paper talent to play suits of
travel songs to mother memory and to a beloved
down in the town. Dance the set. The kings enter
the stage’s opposite doors.
− from Two Dreams
James Liddy was born in Dublin in 1934, of parents who hailed from Limerick and New York. He published many books over a fifty-year career including Wexford and Arcady (Arlen House, 2008), The Askeaton Sequence (Arlen House, 2008) and The Full Shilling (Salmon, 2009). He was a Professor in the English Department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for many years, where he taught creative writing and Irish and Beat literature. James Liddy: A Critical Study by Brian Arkins was published by Arlen House in 2001 and the widely acclaimed Honeysuckle, Honeyjuice: A Tribute to James Liddy, edited by Michael S. Begnal, appeared in 2006. He passed away on 5 November 2008 following a short illness, leaving behind a number of completed manuscripts.
‘Liddy’s work is guided by a fierce and an independent intelligence and by an unwavering faith in the importance of poetry’
− Eamonn Wall, The Irish Times
‘James Liddy was one of the most independent, engaging, and original poets of his time. His poetry … revealed a consistent intellectual and emotional curiosity’
− Mary Cloake, Director, Arts Council of Ireland