Love Between Men

Poetry Unbound's Pádraig Ó Tuama crafts daring, intimate poems exploring the intersections of theology and eros in poems that ask for the simple right to love.

Some men love each other. For others, love of something else gets between them. Pádraig Ó Tuama's Love Between Men begins in the garden of Eden, recasting Adam, Eve, and God into voices both abrasive and intimate. Then, in seven deadly sonnets, the poet details his own experiences of exorcisms and gay reparative therapies, exploring desire with its promise and fear of fulfillment. These poems--by turns, intelligent, funny, devastating, and explosive--consider time, the edges of empire, and the limits of the tongue. Here is rage paired with prayer, in punked-up forms and broken sequences. Love Between Men celebrates and challenges love: of history, poetry, language--and, ultimately, of change.

Pádraig Ó Tuama is an Irish poet, theologian, and broadcaster. He hosts Poetry Unbound from On Being Studios and has published critical and theological essays, a memoir, and multiple volumes of poetry. Kitchen Hymns was published in 2025 by Copper Canyon Press (published by Cheerio in the UK) and was shortlisted for a Lambda award. 44 Poems on Being with Each Other: A Poetry Unbound Collection (Canongate and W.W. Norton) was also published in 2025. Love Between Men is forthcoming in 2026.

Ó Tuama is a compelling writer and speaker. He holds an undergraduate and master's degree in theology, with a PhD from the University of Glasgow in theology and creative writing. From 2014-2019 he was the leader of the Corrymeela Community, Ireland's oldest peace and reconciliation community. He is on faculty at Yale Divinity School and lives in Connecticut on Quinnipiac land.