Eavan Boland is an Irish poet and author whose work deals with Irish national identity and the role of women in Irish history. She has received a Lannan Foundation Award in Poetry; an American-Ireland Fund Literary Award; the Corrington Medal for Literary Excellence; the Bucknell Medal of Distinction; and a PEN Award for creative nonfiction for a collection of her essays. She is currently Bella Mabury and Eloise Mabury Knapp Professor in the Humanities and Melvin and Bill Lane Professor and Director of the Creative Writing program at Stanford university.