Though the Walls Are Lit considers the Irish tradition of hunger strikes and vocal lament. Weaving together hymns, canticles, and blues riffs, Holt configures the page as a threshold where poet and stranger may meet in protest and supplication.
Raised in northern California, Emily Holt has worked as a journalist in the US and Ireland. She received her MFA in creative writing from the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University and a master of letters in literature from Trinity College, University of Dublin. Her poems and essays have appeared in Poetry Ireland Review, The Best New British and Irish Poets, Talking River, and other publications. She lives in Seattle, Washington.
