Andie-Kristina graduated from Loughborough University in 2022, having written her dissertation on her favourite poet, Louis MacNeice. Her dissertation looked at MacNeice’s 1930s poetry and his autobiographical long poem, Autumn Journal, as a source of moral consciousness that may be utilised to document one’s personal experiences and provide political criticism. Her supervisor, Professor Clare Hutton, hailed this dissertation as ‘one of the very best.’ She later pursued an MA at Keele University, where she collaborated with Doctor Rebecca Bowler. Her dissertation, which received a distinction, examined MacNeice’s link to Ezra Pound’s Imagism and subliminal influences in literature. She graduated from Keele in 2024, shortly after accepting a funded research studentship to study a PhD at Loughborough, thanks to the School of Social Sciences and Humanities in the Department of English.
Her lifelong ambition is to work as an academic in Belfast while also finishing her poetry collection, which she believes would be of interest to Faber & Faber. She also wants to educate people about lesser-known poets like MacNeice, whose voices deserve to be heard. Her most prized possession is an exceedingly rare edition of MacNeice’s Blind Fireworks, which she constantly keeps within an inch of herself.
Andie is also the Founder, Managing Director and CEO of her company, Louis MacNeice Society. Her website, which receives thousands of views every month, raises awareness of a much-underappreciated poet, while also uniting like-minded scholars and enhancing the literary community. Andie would want to hear from any other students who are interested in Irish literature, modernist poetry, and writing on the confessional female voice.
Identity as Art: Unveiling Louis MacNeice’s Various and Conflicting Selves
PhD Supervisors: Professor Clare Hutton and Doctor Wim Van-Mierlo
Andie’s research is mostly text and library-based, with a heavy emphasis on archive and textual analysis via close reading. Andie is investigating modern MacNeicean research which highlights the complicated and contentious quandaries involved in labelling and categorising MacNeice’s poetry. Andie is a firm believer that MacNeice has not received the recognition that he so richly deserves; her thesis aims to reassess and relocate the poet, in accordance with analysing the change in his literary style and multifaceted personality, which becomes a nexus of selves.
Andie intends to visit Belfast to learn more about MacNeice’s Irish heritage, as well as conduct interviews with MacNeicean experts at Queen’s University Belfast, before travelling to Texas to access his archives. She is actively connecting with other Irish authors and researchers to gain a comprehensive grasp of MacNeice’s literary identity, which she has discovered to be multifaceted, unprecedented, and complex.
Beyond MacNeice, Andie aspires to conduct study on poets such as Ernest Dowson, John Berryman, Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath, and Philip Larkin. She is currently working on a project that explores the separation of art from the artist in Ted Hughes’ poetry, as well as another piece of research that uncovers a relationship between confessional poetry and suicidal artists.
Publications:
- Louis MacNeice and the Poetry of What Happens: Thirties Literature as a Tool of Communication https://louismacneicesociety.godaddysites.com/research
- Brevity of Form in Louis MacNeice’s Poetry: Rethinking Imagism and Poetic Convention https://louismacneicesociety.godaddysites.com/research
Upcoming Works:
‘Life is Lovely, But I Can't Live It’: Confessional Poetry as a Call to Salvation
‘It Doesn't Fall to Many Men to Murder a Genius’: Separating the Art from the Artist in Ted Hughes’ Poetry
Upcoming Poetry Collections:
Slaves and Giants