Praise for Everything Irish, Poems
by Judy Wells

Everything Irish is a hoot! This family memoir in verse is at once a poignant poetic documentary of Irish-Catholic girlhood and a rollicking riot of laughs. Judy Wells might as well hail from Limerick instead of California—her verses have such tightly crafted, irreverent punch as she turns stereotypes of Irishness topsy-turvy!

—Bridget Connelly, Emerita Professor of Rhetoric
UC Berkeley

Judy Wells' collection, Everything Irish, says it all for me. She captures the times all of "Our Girls" were haunted by a wayward Holy Ghost, a perfect Holy Mary, a thundering Holy Father. She inspires me to remember the times Saint Anthony found everything for me (and still does), and PleaseGod got me out of a fix (and still does). I know exactly what she means when she says,

and your lips get purser and purser
and kapowie and kapowie inside . . .

because she means exactly, precisely, excruciatingly, that a Catholic Girlhood will never leave you even if you try to say goodbye.

—Mary Norbert Korte, Poet, Ex-nun, Environmental Activist

Are there "pagan babies"? Certainly there are Irish ones, and in this hilarious collection, Judy Wells, graduate of St. Catherine's, gives us the lowdown on the secret loves and adventures of an Irish-American feminist. Everything Irish is a delightful peek at "the New Age Irish" as the author spins tales of family, sex, and spirit.

—Jack Foley, Poet, KPFA Literary Host