UMSL English professor honored with prestigious Irish studies position

Eamonn Wall, the Smurfit-Stone Corporation Professor in Irish Studies at UMSL, was named the 2014 Charles A. Heimbold Chair of Irish Studies at Villanova University, one of the most prestigious Irish Studies positions in the U.S. (Photo by August Jennewein)

A native of County Wexford, Ireland, renowned poet Eamonn Wall has thrived as the Smurfit-Stone Corporation Professor in Irish Studies at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. Now Villanova (Pa.) University has recognized his talents, naming Wall to one of the most prestigious Irish studies positions in the United States. He will serve as the 2014 Charles A. Heimbold Chair of Irish Studies at Villanova University for the spring semester.

During his stint as the Heimbold Chair at Villanova, Wall will teach an Honors Poetry Writing Workshop and an Irish-American Fiction seminar allowing Irish studies students to have the enriching experience of a close classroom experience with one of Ireland’s finest voices.

Poet and editor Peter Fallon was the first to hold the position. To help celebrate the inaugural of the Chair, Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney joined Peter Fallon for a joint reading. Since then, an honor roll of Irish writers have held the position.

Wall has written six volumes of poetry and two essay collections in addition to dozens of stories and essays. He also regularly publishes poetry, short fiction, and reviews in The Review of Contemporary Fiction, Washington Post Book World, The Chicago Tribune, The Irish Times, Criticism, Eire-Ireland, Shenandoah, Irish Herald, New Hibernia Review and the Irish Literary Supplement.

Wall earned a bachelor’s degree in English and history and the next year a diploma in education from University College, Dublin. After moving to the United States in the early 1980s, he earned a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and a PhD from the City University of New York–Graduate Center.