Book excerpt: Now in its fourth year, the 'New Voices' series has established itself as the principal forum for presenting the best work by emerging scholars of Irish literature and culture in Ireland today. New voices in Irish criticism 4 broadens the range of its predecessors: diverse essays on art history, linguistics, refugee narratives, and the media mingle with literary studies of new and established figures, including Medbh McGuckian, Oscar Wilde, Brian Friel, John Mitchel, Paul Durcan and Eva Gore-Booth. Innovative comparisons are made in the conjunction of Anton Chekhov, Fernando Pessoa, Katherine Mansfield, Muriel Rukeyser and Edmund Spenser with Irish writers. This diversity allows for an unexpected and illuminating degree of cross-over as all contributors are writing out of the moment, expressing contemporary concerns through historically-informed critical thought.