Roy Foster to curate WB Yeats evening at National Concert Hall

Beautiful Lofty Things: An evening with WB Yeats will take place in the National Concert Hall, Dublin on Saturday, September 12th, at 8pm. Written and hosted by Roy Foster, one of Ireland’s best-known historians and author of an acclaimed two-volume biography of WB Yeats, this major event will illuminate both well-known and more surprising aspects of Yeats’s life and work through poetry and music.

Directed by Alan Gilsenan, the evening will feature performances by notable public figures including writer John Banville, poets Eavan Boland and John Montague, and actor Lisa Dwan, with music from The Gloaming’s master fiddler Martin Hayes and vocalist Iarla Ó Lionáird, and many others.

Beautiful Lofty Things is presented by Poetry Ireland in partnership with Yeats2015 as part of a year-long series of eevdents taking place world-wide to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of the Nobel Prize-winning poet.

Poetry Ireland is also publishing a special Yeats 2015 anniversary edition of Poetry Ireland Review. This is edited by Vona Groarke and includes responses to Yeats’s legacy and readings of his poems from Neil Jordan, Colm Tóibín, Frank McGuinness, Joe O’Connor, Fintan O’Toole, Mary Costello, John Banville and Rowan Williams, along with new poems responding to Yeats’s work by Irish and international poets such as Margaret Atwood, Sharon Olds, Philip Schultz, Sinéad Morrissey and Harry Clifton. The issue also includes Yeats’s poetry collections, reviewed by leading poets (including Paul Muldoon and Maurice Riordan) as if just published, new artwork, Yeats quizzes and even a Maud Gonne crossword.

The publication can be pre-purchased at a reduced price with a concert ticket for Beautiful Lofty Things. Bookings at nch.ie or ring 01-417 0000.