Wake Forest poet-in-residence short listed for ‘Poetry Now’ award

O’Callaghan was nominated for the prize for his new volume, “Fiction,” a book of poetry published in December 2005 by Wake Forest University Press.

The Poetry Now award is the only major poetry award in Ireland. It is awarded to the best book of new work published by an Irish poet in the last year. O’Callaghan is one of only five poets considered for the prize.

O’Callaghan is from Dundalk, Ireland. He and his wife and fellow poet Vona Groarke are visiting poets-in-residence at Wake Forest through the 2007-2008 academic year.

O’Callaghan is also the author of “Seatown and Earlier Poems,” published by Wake Forest University Press in 2000, and “Red Mist: Roy Keane and the Football Civil War,” a best-selling book about the Irish soccer superstar’s banishment from Ireland’s World Cup and its effect on Ireland, on O’Callaghan and his football-crazed son.