Pádraig Ó Tuama

Pádraig Ó Tuama is an Irish poet and theologian whose work keeps returning to belonging, language, conflict and faith. He trained in theology and in mediating conflict within groups, earned a doctorate at the University of Glasgow that brought poetry and theology together, and from 2014 to 2019 led the Corrymeela Community, Ireland's longest-running peace and reconciliation community, whose daily prayer book he compiled. He is now a professor at Yale Divinity School, where he teaches spiritual practice, and a visiting scholar in conflict resolution at Columbia University.

Many people know him as the voice of Poetry Unbound, the On Being podcast in which he reads a single poem slowly and then reflects on it, an approach he brings to retreats and workshops at Omega, Kripalu and elsewhere. In those gatherings he reads poems closely with a group, asks why each one needed to be written, and gives time for participants to write. His books include the memoir In the Shelter, the anthologies 44 Poems on Being with Each Other and Poetry Unbound, and the collections Readings from the Book of Exile, Sorry for Your Troubles, Kitchen Hymns and Love Between Men.