Appalachian First Year Seminar instructor Adrian Rice authors new poetry collection

BOONE, N.C. — The newest collection by poet and Appalachian State University First Year Seminar instructor Adrian Rice — “The Strange Estate: New and Selected Poems 1986–2017” — “is a landmark collection on both sides of the Atlantic,” according to Press 53, the book’s publisher. “The Strange Estate” debuted in July.

In its online overview of Rice’s new book, Press 53, an independent publisher located in Winston-Salem, said, “From the early exploration of the creative constrictions and liberations of the northern Protestant tradition, to his mind-full meditations on his American porch, Rice, in this startlingly rich and emotionally varied collection, fashions and recovers lores of place and belonging.”

“‘The Strange Estate’ is a rich cache of poetry, a rare word-horde if ever there was one,” said Malcolm Guite, author of “Mariner: A voyage with Samuel Taylor Coleridge.”

“From the ‘breathless sounding/Of the worm’s earth-dark’ in ‘Muck Island,’ through the finely-wrought music of ‘The Moongate Sonnets’, to a quiet voice, on ‘The Shadowed Path’, that makes the shadows real, Adrian Rice offers poetry that tunes the ear, and awakens mind and heart to share in his unflinching and compassionate attention to the weave of world and words in which we all live.”

In describing Rice and his poetry, the late poet Seamus Heaney, who authored over 20 books of poetry and was the recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature, said, “Adrian Rice has a nice sense of what he is up to as a poet: I like and admire the way his district and his diction are so artfully tongue-in-cheek and hand-in-glove.”

The Strange Estate: New & Selected Poems 1986–2017

By Adrian Rice
2018

Born just north of Belfast in 1958, a child of the Ulster “Troubles”, Adrian Rice found the lifeline of poetry at high school, but didn’t start writing until his mid-twenties, his first poems coming out (as one Ulster poet put it) “fully formed”. From the early exploration of the creative constrictions and liberations of the northern Protestant tradition, to his mind-full meditations on his American porch, Rice, in this startlingly rich and emotionally varied collection, fashions and recovers lores of place and belonging. “The Strange Estate: New & Selected Poems 1986–2017” is a landmark collection on both sides of the Atlantic.

Available from Press 53

About Adrian Rice

From Belfast, in Northern Ireland, Rice is an established poet whose books have received critical acclaim. His first poetry sequence, “Muck Island,” a collaboration with leading Irish artist Ross Wilson, is housed in the Tate Modern in London and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

His first full collection, “The Mason’s Tongue,” was shortlisted for the Christopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Literary Prize and nominated for the Irish Times Prize for Poetry.

Rice graduated from the University of Ulster with a B.A. in English and politics and a master’s degree in Anglo-Irish literature.

He has delivered writing workshops, readings and lectures throughout the UK, Ireland and America. In autumn 1999, as recipient of the U.S./Ireland Exchange Bursary, he was poet-in-residence at Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory.

His poems and reviews have been broadcast internationally on radio and television, and have been published in several international magazines and journals. Rice returned to Lenoir-Rhyne College as visiting writer-in-residence for 2005.

During his time in Hickory, Rice has taught English and creative writing at several local colleges, including Lenior-Rhyne University and Catawba Valley Community College, and in Appalachian's Department of Reading Education and Special Education.

Rice’s other poetry collections include “The Clock Flower” (Press 53, 2013), “Hickory Station” (Press 53, 2015) and chapbook “Hickory Haiku” (Finishing Line press, 2010).

Rice lives with his wife, Molly Rice, and young son, Micah Rice, in Hickory. He is currently pursuing a doctorate in educational leadership at Appalachian.

“The Strange Estate: New and Selected Poems 1986–2017” is available for purchase from the publisher’s website in paperback and limited edition hardcover formats, as well as from Appalachian’s University Bookstore.

About First Year Seminar at Appalachian

First Year Seminar (FYS) introduces first-year Appalachian State University students to rigorous academic study at the university level through interdisciplinary engagement with a broad topic or question. Experienced faculty engage FYS students in a shared process of inquiry in small seminar-style classes. Regardless of topic, all First Year Seminars help students build information literacy skills, cultivate intercultural competence, develop creative and critical thinking abilities and practice effective communication skills. Additionally, the seminars introduce the importance of making local-to-global connections and of understanding responsibilities of community membership. Learn more at https://firstyearseminar.appstate.edu.

About Appalachian State University

As the premier public undergraduate institution in the Southeast, Appalachian State University prepares students to lead purposeful lives as global citizens who understand and engage their responsibilities in creating a sustainable future for all. The Appalachian Experience promotes a spirit of inclusion that brings people together in inspiring ways to acquire and create knowledge, to grow holistically, to act with passion and determination, and to embrace diversity and difference. Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Appalachian is one of 17 campuses in the University of North Carolina System. Appalachian enrolls nearly 21,000 students, has a low student-to-faculty ratio and offers more than 150 undergraduate and graduate majors.

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