About Michael Longley
Michael George Longley was a Northern Irish poet. In his later years Longley observed: "It's a mystery where poems come from. If I knew where poems came from I would go there... When I write a poem I am moving into unknown territory and hoping to be surprised by some kind of redemptive eloquence to cast light into dark corners". Following his death, the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, called Longley "a peerless poet". Longley won a 2011 London Awards for Art and Performance. Gorse Fires (1991) won the Whitbread Poetry Prize. His collection A Hundred Doors won the Poetry Now Award in September 2012. His 2014 collection, The Stairwell, won the 2015 International Griffin Poetry Prize.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.