Michael Heffernan – författare

A thoughtful and elegant collection from accomplished poet Michael Heffernan.

In At the Bureau of Divine Music, award-winning poet Michael Heffernan combines serious ruminations on the passage of years, on love and infidelity, and on remembrances and regrets with meditations on the more ordinary occurrences of daily life. No matter what their subject matter, the poems are united by their contemplative tone, intelligent details, and elegant style. Written mostly in iambic pentameter, and some in formal sonnets, Heffernan’s poems effortlessly blend the surreal and the actual, the exciting and the mundane, and make for a unique and satisfying reading experience.

At the Bureau of Divine Music contains a mix of long monologues that set out dramatic narratives and shorter pieces that glimpse only a limited scene. His complex speakers are at turns funny and angry, loving and bitter. Their insightful descriptions are filled with sensory details—the tastes, sounds, smells, and sights of memories, dreams, and the trials of the moment—and they inhabit dreamy but familiar settings like "whole neighborhoods of happy people," the suburban backyard, or the drive-in movie theater on the edge of town. While some of the poems are inspired by domestic disturbances, betrayals, and losses, others visit redemptions, sweet long-ago journeys, and ecstasies.

This collection contains a range of Heffernan’s work from the last several years, presented here together for the first time. Fans of Heffernan’s writing and readers interested in poetry will enjoy At the Bureau of Divine Music.

This volume of specially commissioned interpretative essays marks the centenary of the establishment of the International Geographical Union in 1922. Written by leading human and physical geographers from all parts of the world, A Geographical Century considers the history and present condition of geography as an international science.

The revival of interest in collective cultural memories since the 1980s has been a genuinely global phenomenon. Cultural memories can be defined as the social constructions of the past that allow individuals and groups to orient themselves in time and space. The investigation of cultural memories has necessitated an interdisciplinary perspective, though geographical questions about the spaces, places, and landscapes of memory have acquired a special significance. The essays in this volume, written by leading anthropologists, geographers, historians, and psychologists, open a range of new interpretations of the formation and development of cultural memories from ancient times to the present day. The volume is divided into five interconnected sections. The first section outlines the theoretical considerations that have shaped recent debates about cultural memory. The second section provides detailed case studies of three key themes: the founding myths of the nation-state, the contestation of national collective memories during periods of civil war, and the oral traditions that move beyond national narrative. The third section examines the role of World War II as a pivotal episode in an emerging European cultural memory. The fourth section focuses on cultural memories in postcolonial contexts beyond Europe. The fifth and final section extends the study of cultural memory back into premodern tribal and nomadic societies.