Today on My Poetic Side, we bring you stories about the new Ireland Professor of Poetry, the auction of Bob Dylan’s love letters and the baby giraffe named after a poet.

New Ireland Professor of Poetry

Paul Muldoon, the poet from Co Armagh, has been named as the next Ireland Professor of Poetry. A winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Muldoon will be the ninth Ireland Professor of Poetry. He will take over from Frank Ormsby, who is the current holder. His tenure will run until November 2025.

The position of the Ireland Chair of Poetry Trust was created in 1998 when Seamus Heaney was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. It was felt that this incredible achievement should be marked once every three years with the choosing of a poet of particular distinction who would hold the position of Ireland Chair of Poetry.

The Chair is a joint position held between the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Queen’s University Belfast, University College Dublin and Trinity College Dublin.

Over the course of his three-year tenure, Muldoon is hoping to focus more on the reading of poetry and less on the writing of it. He is hoping to lead discussions on how to read a poem at Queen’s University, Belfast.

He is also hoping to run some form of forum at both Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin whilst making some links with the School of Irish, Celtic Studies and Folklore at UCD. For the last 35 years, he has been teaching in the US and is now looking forward to connecting more with his Irish cultural background.

Having himself studied at Queen’s University Belfast, Muldoon is the author of 14 volumes of poetry. He has been awarded a number of major poetry prizes, including a Pulitzer Prize and the Seamus Heaney Award for Arts and Letters.

Dylan Letters Sell for almost $670,000

A collection of letters Bob Dylan wrote to his high school girlfriend has been auctioned off. The 42 letters have been purchased by a Portuguese bookshop which has paid almost $670,000 for them.

The bookshop Livraria Lello is hoping to keep the archive of the letters, which totals 150 pages all handwritten for fans of the songwriter and poet to come and study.

Dylan, who is now 81 wrote the letters between 1957 and 1959 whilst he was still known as Robert Zimmerman. The pair were in the same year at high school and sat in the same row in history class. They began dating and when Hewitt moved to Minneapolis, they began corresponding.

The letters came to light in 2020 when they were found by Hewitt’s daughter on her death.

Baby Giraffe Gets Special Name on Remembrance Day

A baby giraffe born at Whipsnade Zoo on Remembrance Day has been named Wilfred after Wilfred Owen the renowned WWI poet. The 6ft baby was the third calf to be born to mum Luna, and the staff at the zoo felt that the importance of his birthday should be marked with the choosing of a very special name.