Paul Muldoon facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Paul Muldoon
Born	(1951-06-20) 20 June 1951 (age 73) Portadown, Northern Ireland
Occupation	Poet, author, and writer
Education	Queen's University Belfast (BA)
Spouse	Jean Hanff Korelitz

Paul Muldoon is a famous Irish poet. He was born on June 20, 1951. He has written over thirty books of poems. Paul Muldoon has won many important awards for his writing. These include the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the T. S. Eliot Prize.

He has taught at Princeton University for many years. There, he helped start the Lewis Center for the Arts. From 1999 to 2004, he was the Oxford Professor of Poetry. He also led the Poetry Society in the UK. For a time, he was the poetry editor for The New Yorker magazine.

Early Life and Career

Paul Muldoon grew up on a farm in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. He was the oldest of three children. His father was a farmer, and his mother was a teacher. He says there were not many books in his home. But he read the Junior World Encyclopaedia many times. This helped him learn a lot of different things.

In 1969, Paul Muldoon went to Queen's University Belfast. He studied English there. He met other poets like Seamus Heaney. He also joined a group of writers called the Belfast Group. This group included poets like Michael Longley and Medbh McGuckian. He found this time very exciting. Even though he wasn't the best student, his first book of poems, New Weather, was published while he was there.

After university, Paul Muldoon worked for the BBC in Belfast. He was an arts producer for 13 years, from 1973 to 1986. During this time, he published two more poetry books. These were Why Brownlee Left (1980) and Quoof (1983).

Teaching and Moving to America

After leaving the BBC, he taught writing at different universities. He taught at the University of East Anglia and Cambridge University in England. Some of his students became famous writers. In 1987, Paul Muldoon moved to the United States. He started teaching creative writing at Princeton University. He also returned to England to be the Professor of Poetry at Oxford University for five years.

Paul Muldoon is married to a novelist named Jean Hanff Korelitz. They have two children, Dorothy and Asher. He mostly lives in New York City.

His Poetry and Other Works

Paul Muldoon's poems are known for being clever and sometimes tricky. He uses unusual words and plays with words. He is also very good at using rhythm and sounds in his poems. Critics say he is one of the most important poets of his time. His work is often compared to his friend and mentor, Seamus Heaney.

In 2003, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. This is a very high honor for a poet. He has also won the T. S. Eliot Prize and the Griffin Poetry Prize. His poems have been collected in several books. These include Poems 1968–1998 and Selected Poems 1968–2014. In 2007, he became the poetry editor for The New Yorker magazine.

Long Poems and Other Projects

Many of Paul Muldoon's poetry books include a long poem at the end. One of his longest and most complex poems is Madoc: A Mystery. This poem is like a puzzle. It tells an imaginary story about two poets, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey. In the poem, they travel to America to start a perfect community. The poem even includes maps and diagrams. Some people find it hard to understand, but Muldoon says he enjoys having fun with his writing.

Besides poetry, Paul Muldoon has written for operas. He has also written lyrics for rock bands. He even plays guitar in his own bands, like Rogue Oliphant. He has edited books by other famous people, like Paul McCartney. He has also written books for children and translated works by other authors.

Awards and Honors

Paul Muldoon has received many awards for his poetry. Here are some of the major ones:

• 1990: Guggenheim Fellowship
• 1992: Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize for Madoc: A Mystery
• 1994: T. S. Eliot Prize for The Annals of Chile
• 1997: Irish Times' Irish Literature Prize for Poetry
• 2003: Griffin Poetry Prize (Canada) for Moy Sand and Gravel
• 2003: Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Moy Sand and Gravel
• 2004: Aspen Prize for Poetry
• 2017: Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry

Selected Honors

• Honorary Professor at the University of St Andrews (Scotland)
• Professor of Poetry at Oxford University (1999–2004) (England)
• Honorary Fellow of Hertford College, Oxford University (England)
• Fellowship with the Royal Society of Literature (England)
• Fellowship with the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (US)
• Awarded an honorary doctorate by Trinity College Dublin in 2014 (Ireland)

See also

• List of Northern Irish writers
• Oxford Professor of Poetry
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
• Postmodernism