Questions of identity— as an Irish woman, mother, poet, and exile— give rise to much of Eavan Boland’s (1944—) poetry. She was born in Dublin, but grew up in London, where anti-Irish racism gave her a strong sense of her heritage. Irish history and myth also figure prominently in her work. The author of eight collections of poetry, most lately An Origin Like Water: Collected Poems, 1967-1987 and Against Love Poetry, she has also written Object Lessons: The Life of the Woman and the Poet in Our Time and co-edited with Mark Strand The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms. She is a professor of English at Stanford.