Abstract
RISE 4.2 is a festive anniversary tribute to one of Ireland's most eminent poets Medbh McGuckian. Seven international scholars and leading experts on McGuckian's work have come together in its pages to highlight important moments in the poet's career by focussing on some of her individual collections, or trace developments across the expansive oeuvre.
The articles to be found in this issue address McGuckian's writing through a number of diverse foci. These range from the work's engagement with political violence during the Troubles and their competing representations in cultural memory; through considerations of the commemorative thrust of individual poems and collections; and questions of knowledge, faith and scepticism; to the prominence of the image and the visual in McGuckian's poetics.
The issue comprises three new poems by McGuckian and an interview with the poet in which she reads and discusses poems from her recent work. Audio clips of these readings can be accessed from the text of the interview.