"These poems, then, offer a new paradigm of heritage as a function of place, of body, of language. Interwoven as the tangled sinews of belonging grappling with history and dispersal, the threads of Ancestor Worship tie a complex knot. But it is a knot that binds us, ties us to our families and homelands. Moving forward from the unmoored civil society of the twentieth century, this gnarled and ambivalent filiation is incredibly timely, and Begnal's poetry makes a fit vessel for it."
The Irish Literary Supplement

"Of the most recent brace of poets to emerge from Galway, Irish-American and Irish-language enthusiast, Michael S. Begnal is by far and away the most accomplished and the most interesting... Excellent. Salmon Poetry at her best."
Fred Johnston

"This is an intriguing collection to discover, unearth, and to contemplate."
New Hope International

Michael S. Begnal is a dual Irish/American citizen, born in the United States in 1966. He has spent many years living in Ireland, and was editor of the Galway-based literary magazine, The Burning Bush. His first collection, The Lakes of Coma (Six Gallery Press), was published in 2003. His work has appeared in numerous journals, including Poetry Ireland Review, Poetry Wales, Translation Ireland, Cork Literary Review, and in the anthology Breaking the Skin: New Irish Poetry. His Irish-language writing has been published in Comhar, Lá, and the Go nuige seo anthologies (Coiscéim). Begnal has contributed articles to books such as Honeysuckle, Honeyjuice: A Tribute to James Liddy, which he also edited, and Avant-Post: The Avant-Garde under "Post-" Conditions (Litteraria Pragensia).