Professor Eoin Devereux releases debut poetry collection

Professor Eoin Devereux releases debut poetry collection, Gardening Leave

University of Limerick’s Professor Eoin Devereux has published his debut poetry collection, Gardening Leave

Describing his debut poetry collection as “unapologetically political”, Professor Eoin Devereux of University of Limerick hopes ‘Gardening Leave’ will give a voice to those who he says are too often ignored or written off.

The collection is not just concerned with issues of social justice but is also deeply personal as the poems draw on hidden family histories, as well as Professor Devereux’s working-class upbringing in Limerick’s Kennedy Park.

Professor Devereux said, “I had written a lot in my teens – song lyrics mostly. I returned to creative writing 13 years ago, but my starting point wasn’t poetry. I wrote short stories and flash fiction, but poetry began to seep out. I was initially very reluctant to write poetry, but then realised that, in a way, I had no choice.”

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In one of the poems contained within the collection, ‘That Poetry Thing’, Professor Devereux reveals the reasons why he writes poetry. He writes about how his poems aim to give a voice to stories untold, to call out social injustice and in doing so, his work allows him the space to try and imagine a better world.

 “I think that my academic writing and teaching has improved because creativity encourages you to take more risks, to be more provocative,” said Professor Devereux, adding, “In contrast to the ‘publish or perish’ culture, which increasingly surrounds a lot of academic writing, the main lesson I took from writing Gardening Leave was to take my time.”

Professor Devereux, a cultural sociologist and co-director of UL’s Centre for the Study of Popular Music and Popular Culture, is also a lecturer on UL’s MA in Creative Writing, which gives students access to esteemed wordsmiths and award-winning writers, including Professor Joseph O’Connor, Professor Sarah Moore Fitzgerald, Donal Ryan and Emily Cullen.

Officially launched at O’Mahony’s Bookshop on Thursday, November 6, award-winning novelist and Associate Professor in Creative Writing at UL, Donal Ryan, described Gardening Leave as a “towering achievement”. He said, “It is essential poetry, funny and furious, scything and stark, sincere and always beautiful.”  

Dr Emily Cullen, the inaugural Meskell UL-Fifty Poet in Residence, said, “Professor Devereux’s cadences often coalesce around deeply felt questions of social justice. This is an important book, full of compassion, to nourish the garden of the spirit.”