When all the others were away at Mass - Seamus Heaney

When all the others were away at Mass Seamus Heaney FSG Poetry

When all the others were away at Mass by Seamus Heaney has been named Ireland's best-loved poem from the past century. It was chosen from ballots cast by the public, and announced by Irish President Michael D. Higgins. The third of eight sonnets in "Clearances," a series of sonnets dedicated to the poet's mother, Margaret Kathleen McCann, the poem is featured in the recently published Selected Poems 1966-1987, one of two new editions of Heaney's work that were arranged by the Nobel laureate himself. Read on...

The Lost Child Caryl Phillips Excerpt

She likes to sit down by the docks in a place where sunlight can discover her face. Once there, she leans back and listens to the monotony of seawater lapping against the quayside, and she has no concept of the hour. She disturbs no one, but she hears footsteps passing in each direction. She is a woman in debt who can no longer find anyone willing to employ her at the loom; she is a diminished woman who, before her time, has yielded reluctantly to age and infirmity. They call her Crazy Woman, but she smiles and forgives them. Read on...