04 Nov 2016

This past summer, Corrymeela was honoured to welcome Krista Tippett and some of the team from On Being. During this visit Krista interviewed the renowned poet Michael Longley, author of over 20 books of poetry. The interview is linked below. They discuss art, sectarianism, wildflowers and the calling of the poet in times of trouble. 

If you wish to subscribe to the On Being radio programme, and explore their extraordinary archive of interviews, go to their website.  

Michael Longley has written more than 20 books of poetry, including Collected Poems, Gorse Fires, and his most recent collection, The Stairwell. He was the professor of poetry for Ireland from 2007 to 2010 and is the winner of the Whitbread Poetry Prize, the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Hawthornden Prize, and the Griffen Prize. In 2015 he was honored with the Freedom of the City of Belfast.

Krista Tippett is an award winning journalist based in Minneapolis, Minnesota USA. She was honoured with a National Award for the Humanities by Barack Obama at the White House in 2014 for “thoughtfully delving into the mysteries of human existence. On the air and in print, Ms. Tippett avoids easy answers, embracing complexity and inviting people of every background to join her conversation about faith, ethics, and moral wisdom.”

She and a wonderful team, together, produce the programme On Being listened to by over 1 million people each week. The team also produces two other podcasts and weekly columns exploring what it means to be human in our world today. They hear from authors, theologians, poets, scientists and thinkers and explore the world of ideas and meaning from a first person narrative. We loved having them at Corrymeela. There will be more interviews coming from their visit in the coming months. 

For information about all things On Being, their website (and archive of a decade of interviews) is extraordinary. Go to

www.onbeing.org