*
John
Ennis is the author of thirteen books of poetry. He
retired (31 August 2009) as Head of
School of Humanities at Waterford Institute of
Technology, where he was also Chair
of the Centre for Newfoundland and Labrador Studies. He worked for forty years in
education in Waterford.
His last long poem was OisÃn’s Journey Home (2006), a work
in praise of the people who built and served Newfoundland’s now defunct railway. He has
acted as editor for Poetry Ireland Review. He served on the Executive of Poetry Ireland for eleven
years. Awards have included The Patrick
Kavanagh Award in 1975, numerous firsts in the Listowel Open and The Irish
American Cultural Institute Award in 1996. Since 2003, he has co-edited
three anthologies of Canadian – Irish Poetry: The Backyards of Heaven (2003), However Blow the Winds
(2004, The Echoing Years (2007); he edited a further All-Canadian
Anthology How the Light Gets in …(2009).
In 2008, Memorial University of Newfoundland at Sir
Wilfred Grenfell
College awarded him an Honorary Doctorate in Laws “. . .[for]
fostering links between Ireland
and Newfoundland,
and for his poetry”. In 2010, his work was substantially represented in the Harvard Anthology
of Modern Irish Poetry. In
2011, he was commissioned to write the words for the finale –anthem of Come
the Sails, a choral work to honour The Tall Ships in Waterford. In 2012, his work is appearing in Poetry
Ireland Review, Stinging
Fly, Riddle Fence, Outburst, New Hibernia
Review, The Clifden Anthology. . . .
Coming soon to this site drafts for new poetry sequences:
Going Home to Geatland
Before a Time of Flood
A Pullet for Jack and pther poems
From Where Cecco Lies
..........
