CHARLOTTE MEW was born in London in 1869, the third child of an architect, and was educated at a London girls’ school. Her first published work was a short story in The Yellow Book in 1894. Living in difficult circumstances with her mother and sister Anne, an artist, Mew found a measure of freedom from isolation and failed relationships, notably with the novelist May Sinclair, in holidays in France and Belgium. In the years from 1913 she became increasingly productive as a poet: her first collection, The Farmer’s Bride, was published in 1916, to be followed by a larger edition in 1921, and a second collection The Rambling Sailor in 1929. In 1923 she was awarded a Civil List pension on the recommendation of John Masefield, Walter de la Mare and Thomas Hardy. In 1927, still grieving from the death of her sister, Mew killed herself.
EAVEN BOLAND was born in Dublin. Her first book was published in 1967; Carcanet publish her eight poetry collections, her prose book Object Lessons and her New Collected Poems (2005). She has received numerous awards for her writing. She is Mabury Knapp Professor at Stanford University where she is director of the Creative Writing Program. She divides her time between California and Dublin where she lives with her husband, the novelist Kevin Casey.