On today’s episode of The Poems We Made Along the Way Gregory Kearns speaks to Vona Groarke about being selected for the Ireland Professor of Poetry, how government investment in the arts has a positive cultural impact, and the importance of not divulging to much about your writing practice. 

Vona Groarke has written numerous volumes of poetry, all published by The Gallery Press. Including: Shale, X, Double Negative, and most recently Infinity Pool which, of course, was shortlisted for 2025’s TS Eliot Prize. Vona teaches at the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester and was recently selected as the Ireland Professor of Poetry.

Thank you to the T.S. Eliot Prize for facilitating this episode as part of a series of interviews with poets shortlisted for the 2025 prize. www.tseliot.com/prize/prize-year/the-t-s-eliot-prize-2025/    

Books and other things:

Infinity Pool: https://gallerypress.com/product/infinity-pool/

Link (Poet and World): https://gallerypress.com/product/link-poet-and-world/

Hereafter The Telling Life of Ellen O’Hara: https://nyupress.org/9781479835324/hereafter/

You can also use our affiliate link for Bookshop to find most of the books by most of the guests from the show. They are organised into lists for each series. If you use this link, we get a fraction of the money you spend: https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/series-five-the-poems-we-made-along-the-way        

We’d also recommend enquiring with your local bookshops or libraries as well.

Things I watched in the lead up to this interview

Vona Groarke talks of passion, architecture, and sonnets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRZDldxhDlk&t=34s

Speech by President Higgins to celebrate Vona Groarke as the new Ireland Professor of Poetry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxyDMTzKgcE

Vona Groarke talks about her work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gtj70aF894 (this wasn’t actually out before our interview but it is good nonetheless)

The Usual

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Theme tune: Joe Chesterman-March who can be found here: https://joecm.co.uk    

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