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For the past
decade Rita Ann Higgins's strong, clear poetic voice
has challenged and revitalised literary norms. With her first
publication, Goddess
on the Mervue Bus
(Salmon, 1986), she was instantly recognised as a powerful force
for change. Witch
in the Bushes (1988), followed in 1992 by the first
edition of Philomena's
Revenge,
established her solidly in the public mind. Her fourth collection
with Salmon Poetry is Higher
Purchase.
During her
successful publishing career Rita Ann Higgins has not been swayed
from her position of observer, she has not embraced the comfortable
appellation 'best-selling-writer' or worse 'establishment poet'.
What makes her work so fresh and exciting is its immediacy -
she lives in these words, in the pictures she paints in the
world in which deep sadness and wry humour co-mingle with the
capacity for hope.
"Galway-born
Rita Ann Higgins has come from outside the establishment
to make her statements for all those who are waiting to hear.
"Exposing the lies, the posturing and petty cruelties of the
powerful, these poems tear away the shameful veils of hypocrisy
to bite deep into the very bones of contemporary Irish society.
Nothing, or no one, is sacred for Rita Ann Higgins. Utterly
without artifice or pretension, her voice is at once strong,
angry and acid sharp. These are poems of survival and resistance,
for a time in which both are difficult." Ailbhe Smyth
"There are
not many books of poetry of which I can say that I can remember
the day, the month, the year when I read them. Rita Ann Higgins's
Goddess on the Mervue Bus was such a book. It was a cold dark
winter's day when I read it and it lit a fire in my heart. To
me Rita Ann Higgins means a unique line in human warmth; and
a unique colour of humour and a unique clarity." Paul Durcan
Rita Ann
Higgins first began writing in 1982 and has since published
three volumes of poetry. She has read her work at Oxford University,
Queens University Belfast, Trinity College Dublin, UCC and UCG
as well as major arts festivals throughout Ireland. Reading
tours outside this country have brought her to London, Germany,
Austria, Hungary and New York. She has also read her work on
numerous radio programmes including the Gerry Ryan Show, The
Sunday Show and the Pat Kenny Show. Her poetry has been anthologised
and dramatised. Ms. Higgins was born in Galway in 1955, and
still resides in her native city.
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