Great Immigrant: Paul Muldoon
Born in Northern Ireland, Paul Muldoon is a Pulitzer Prize–winning poet and professor who has helped define contemporary poetry. A new Carnegie-commissioned comic series highlights Muldoon’s story and the stories of other naturalized citizens who enrich American society and strengthen our democracy
By Jongsma + O’Neill & Chuan Ming Ong
Aug 18, 2025
Paul Muldoon immigrated to the United States from Northern Ireland in 1987 to be with his girlfriend, American novelist Jean Hanff Korelitz, whom he later married. Born in 1951 in County Armagh, in Northern Ireland, Muldoon was raised by a schoolteacher and a farm laborer near The Moy. As a young boy, Muldoon entertained himself with imaginings of North America, playing cowboys and “Indians” — the only word he knew at the time for the native population.
“I love the U.S. and believe in the U.S. experiment,” says Muldoon. “As imperfect as it may be, it is important, and we must not give up on it, despite everything.”
As an English student at Queen’s University Belfast, Muldoon studied with poet and future Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney and became associated with the Belfast Group, an influential cohort of writers from Northern Ireland. He published his first collection of poetry, New Weather, in 1973, at the age of 21.
The same year, he began work as a producer for the BBC in Belfast during some of the most intense years of The Troubles, a period of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland. He is currently professor emeritus at Princeton University, where he taught for more than three decades, becoming director of its creative writing program in 1993 and the founding chair of the Lewis Center for the Arts in 2006. He served as Oxford Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford from 1999–2004.
Described by the Times Literary Supplement as “the most significant English-language poet born since the Second World War,” Muldoon writes verse that is known for its multiplicity of meaning and its use of unconventional linguistic devices. His many honors include the 1996 American Academy of Arts and Letters award in literature and the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for poetry. He served as The New Yorker’s poetry editor for a decade. His work has been translated into over 20 languages.
“The truth is, everyone here is an immigrant — the earliest people came via South America or across the Bering Strait land bridge or wherever else,” says Muldoon. “As they say in Ireland and the U.S.: Everybody came from somewhere.”
Every Fourth of July, Carnegie Corporation of New York celebrates the exemplary contributions of immigrants to American life, as part of its focus on reducing political polarization and strengthening democracy. To highlight their stories, the foundation has commissioned a new comic series that illustrates how naturalized citizens enrich American society.
Download Paul Muldoon’s full comic here.
* In Fiscal Year 2022, 58 percent of new legal permanent residents in the United States obtained residential status through a family relationship. (Source: How the United States Immigration System Works, American Immigration Council, 2024)
Eline Jongsma and Kel O’Neill lead Jongsma + O’Neill, a nonfiction storytelling studio. They are Sundance fellows, Emmy nominees, and the creators of the immersive exhibition Loot. 10 Stories, which won the 2024 XR-History Award.
Chuan Ming Ong is a Dutch illustrator whose illustrations have appeared in publications including The New Yorker, the Los Angeles Times, and Nikkei Asia.
