Fran Brearton

I teach primarily in the areas of 19th and 20th century Irish literature, modern poetry - particularly contemporary Irish and British poetry - and modernist literature. I’ve supervised research students in the areas of 19th & 20th century Irish literature, 20th-century British, Irish, and American poetry, and 20th-century British fiction, and welcome proposals in the areas of modern British and Irish literature. I also supervise the critical component of creative writing PhDs (fiction and poetry). I convene and teach on the MA in Poetry: Creativity and Criticism, and also on the MA in English Literary Studies.

My research interests are primarily in British and Irish Poetry of the 20th and 21st centuries, and in the literature and culture of the First World War, literary modernism, and war writing throughout the 20th century. I also have a particular interest in the work of Robert Graves – his poetry, historical fiction, criticism, and autobiographical writings.

My first book was a study of the effects of the First World War on 20th-century Irish poetry; more recently, I co-edited (with Alan Gillis) The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish Poetry. I've just edited a new edition of Robert Graves's First World War memoir, Good-bye to All That, for Penguin Classics (2014) and am currently working on a study of Graves's writings.