Mícheál Ó hAodha was born in 1969. His poems are collected in the dual-language Survivor/Dúchas Dóchasach: Representations of the New Irish ([with paintings by Jean ‘Ryan’ Hakizimana] Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Cambridge Scholars Publications, 2007); and Slán le hÉirinn (Baile Átha Cliath, Coscéim, 2012). He writes fiction as well as poetry and has translated extensively from Irish, including […]
James Clarence Mangan was born in Dublin on May 1st, 1803. He was the son of a former hedge-school teacher who later became a grocer. Mangan was educated at a Jesuit school where he learned the rudiments of Latin, Spanish, French, and Italian, but when his father became bankrupt he was obliged to leave school […]
Alex Hijmans was born in Heemskerk in Holland In 1975. He moved to Ireland when he was twenty years old and learned Irish as part of his degree in Celtic Studies, before spending a twelve year period in Galway working in various Irish-language media. His main literary works to date have been written and published […]
Samuel Beckett was born in Foxrock, Co Dublin in 1906. His fiction includes More Pricks Than Kicks (London, Chatto and Windus, 1934); Murphy (London, G. Routledge, 1938); Molloy (Paris, Les Editions de Minuit 1951); English translation as Molloy by Samuel Beckett and Patrick Bowles. (Paris, Olympia Press, 1955); Malone Meurt (Paris, Les Editions de Minuit […]
Sujata Bhatt was born in Ahmedabad, India in 1956, and spent her early years in Pune. She has translated Gujarati poetry into English for the Penguin anthology of Contemporary Indian Women Poets. Her collections are Brunizem (Manchester, The Carcanet Press, 1988), for which she received the Commonwealth Poetry Prize (Asia) and the Alice Hunt Bartlett […]
Pat Boran was born in Portlaoise in 1963. His poetry collections are The Unwound Clock (Dublin, The Dedalus Press, 1990), which won the Patrick Kavanagh Award; Familiar Things (Dedalus, 1993); The Shape of Water (Dedalus, 1996); As the Hand, the Glove (Dedalus, 2001); and New and Selected Poems, with an introduction by Dennis O’Driscoll (Cambridge, […]
Eva Bourke was born in Germany but has lived in Ireland for many years. Her poetry collections are Gonella (Galway, Salmon Publishing, 1985, with drawings by Jay Murphy); Litany for the Pig (Salmon Publishing, 1989); Spring in Henry Street (Dublin, Dedalus, 1996); Travels With Gandolfo (Dedalus, 2000); The Latitude of Naples (Dedalus, 2005); and Piano […]
Hubert Butler was born in Kilkenny in 1900. He is recognized as the most distinctive Irish essayists, writing in the highest traditions of Swift and Shaw. His essays reflect his experiences in pre-war Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Latvia, Russia and China, as well as Ireland. In 1933/34 he translated and adapted Chekov’s The Cherry Orchard […]
Ciaran Carson was born in Belfast in 1948. His poetry collections include The New Estate (Belfast, Blackstaff Press, 1976) which won the Eric Gregory Award; The Irish for No (Oldcastle, Co Meath, The Gallery Press, 1987, and subsequently Wake Forest Press, USA/Bloodaxe Books, UK), which won the Alice Hunt Bartlett Award; Belfast Confetti (Gallery Books, […]
Bríd Dáibhís was born in County Laois in 1930. Her collections include Corrán Gealaí (Baila Átha Cliath, Coiscéim, 1978); Cosán na Gréine (Coiscéim, 1989); Tráithnín Seirce (Coiscéim, 1999). She has translated a number of psalms into Irish, as Salmurnaithe – Psalm Prayers in Irish (With Caoimhin O Líon, Foilseachain Abhair Spioradalta, 2001). Her awards include […]
Pádraig J. Daly was born in Dungarvan, Co Waterford, in 1943. His poetry collections are Nowhere but in Praise (Dublin, Profile Press, 1978), Poems: Selected and New (Dublin, The Dedalus Press, 1988); The Voice of the Hare (The Dedalus Press, 1997); The Last Dreamers (The Dedalus Press, 1999); The Other Sea (The Dedalus Press, 2003); […]
John F. Deane was born on Achill Island in 1943. His poetry collections are Stalking After Time (Dublin, Profile Press, 1977); High Sacrifice (Dublin, Dedalus Press, 1981); Winter in Meath (Dedalus Press, 1984); Road with Cypress and Star (Dedalus Press, 1988); The Stylized City, Selected and New Poems (Dedalus Press, 1991); Walking on Water (Dedalus […]
Theo Dorgan was born in Cork in 1953. His poetry collections are The Ordinary House of Love (Galway, Salmon Poetry, 1991); Rosa Mundi(Salmon Poetry, 1995); Sappho’s Daughter (Dublin, wave Train Press 1998); and Greek (Dublin, The Dedalus Press, 2010). The Ordinary House of Love and Rosa Mundi are also published as one volume, What This […]
Julia O’Faolain was born in London in 1932 to the writer Sean O’Faolain and children’s writer Eileen O’Faolain (née Gould). Her works include the short story collections We Might See Sights! and Other Stories (London, Faber & Faber, 1968); Man in the Cellar (Faber & Faber, 1974); and Daughters of Passion (London, Penguin, 1982). Her […]
Vona Groarke was born in Edgeworthstown, Co Longford, in 1964, and grew up on a farm outside Athlone. Her collections are Shale (Loughcrew, Co Meath, The Gallery Press, 1994); Other People’s Houses (The Gallery Press, 1999); Flight (The Gallery Press, 2002), which was shortlisted for the Forward Prize in 2002, and winner of the Michael […]
James Harpur was born in 1956 of Irish-British descent. His poetry collections are A Vision of Comets (London, Anvil Press Poetry, 1993); The Monk’s Dream (Anvil Press Poetry, 1996); Oracle Bones (Anvil Press Poetry, 2001); The Dark Age (Anvil Press Poetry, 2007); and Angels and Harvesters (Anvil Press Poetry, 2012). He has also published his […]
Jack Harte was born in Sligo in 1944. His short stories collections are Murphy in the Underworld (Dublin, Glendale, 1986); Birds and Other Tails (Dublin, The Dedalus Press, 1996); Birds and Selected Stories (Opheus, Sophia, Bulgaria, 2001); and From Under Gogol’s Nose (Dublin, Scotus Press, 2004), accompanied by the CD Lament for the Birds, Sligo […]
Michael Hartnett /Micheál Ó hAirtnéide was born in Co Limerick in 1944. His collections include Anatomy of a Cliché (Dublin, Poetry Ireland Editions 4, The Dolmen Press, 1968); The Old Hag of Beare (a translation from the Irish, Dublin, New Writers Press, 1969); Selected Poems (New Writers Press, 1970); Tao (versions from the Chinese, Dublin, […]
Seamus Heaney was born in Derry in 1939. His bibliography is vast, his work encompassing poetry, criticism, theatre and translation. His major poetry collections are Death of a Naturalist (London, Faber and Faber, 1966); Door Into the Dark (London, Faber and Faber, 1969); Wintering Out (London, Faber and Faber, 1972); North (London, Faber and Faber, […]
Pearse Hutchinson was born in Glasgow of Irish parents in 1927 and reared in Dublin. A polyglot, he lived in Spain for almost ten years in the 1950s and 60s. His collections include Tongue Without Hands (Dublin, The Dolmen Press, 1963); Faoistin Bhacach (Baile Átha Cliath, An Clóchomhar, 1968); Expansions (The Dolmen Press, 1969); Le […]
Valentin Iremonger was born in Dublin in 1918. A career diplomat, he served as Irish Ambassador to Sweden, Norway, Finland, India and Luxembourg. With Samuel Beckett and Brian Coffey, he is credited with introducing modernism to Irish poetry. His poetry collections include One Recent Evening (London: Resurgam Books/The Favil Press, 1944 [with Robert Greacen and […]
Peter Jankowsky was born in Berlin in 1939. He studied acting in Berlin and worked for ten years with a number of German theatre companies. He settled in Dublin in 1971, having visited Ireland since the 1950s. His poetry translations include (with Brian Lynch) Paul Celan: 65 Poems (Raven Arts Press, 1986); Davoren Hanna: Unüblice […]
Fred Johnston was born in Belfast in 1951. His collections are Measuring Angles (Connamara, Clo Iar-Chonnachta, 1993); True North (Cliffs of Moher, Co Clare, Salmon Poetry, 1997); Being Anywhere – New & Selected Poems (Belfast, Lagan Press, 2001); and The Neon Rose (Bristol, Bluechrome, 2007). His novels are Picture of a Girl in a Spanish […]
Trevor Joyce was born in Dublin in 1947. Co-founder and co-editor (with Michael Smith) of New Writers’ Press in 1967, and founding editor of The Lace Curtain, his collections include Sole Glum Trek (Dublin, New Writers Press, 1967); Watches (NWP, 1969); Pentahedron (NWP, 1972); The Poems of Sweeney Peregrine (NWP, 1976); and stone floods (NWP, […]
Brendan Kennelly was born in Co Kerry in 1936. He has published over thirty books of poetry. His early poetry includes Cast a Cold Eye (with Rudi Holzapfel, Dublin, The Dolmen Press, 1959); The Rain, the Moon (with Rudi Holzapfel, The Dolmen Press, 1961); The Dark About Our Loves (with Rudi Holzapfel, Dublin, John Augustine […]
Adrian Kenny was born in Dublin in 1945. His fiction is Arcady & other Stories (Dublin, Writers Co-Op, 1983); The Feast of Michaelmas, a novel (Writer’s Co-Op, 1978); Before the Wax Hardened, an autobiographical novel (Dublin, Odell & Adair, 1991); a sequel to Before The Wax Hardened, the autobiographical novel The Family Business (Dublin, The […]
Thomas Kinsella was born in Dublin in 1928. His many collections of poems include Poems (Dublin, The Dolmen Press, 1956); Another September (Dolmen, 1958); Downstream (Dolmen, 1962); Butcher’s Dozen (Dublin, Peppercanister, 1972); Fifteen Dead (Dolmen, Peppercanister, 1979); The Good Fight (Peppercanister 1973); Nightwalker and Other Poems (Dolmen, Oxford, New York, Oxford University Press, 1968; New […]
Anatoly Kudryavitsky (pen name of Antholy Kudryavitsky) was born in Moscow in 1954. His father was of Polish origin; his mother was a daughter of an Irishman from South Co. Mayo who died in Stalin’s Gulag. He is a member of the Russian Writers’ Union and Irish PEN, former President of the Russian Poetry Society […]
Brian Lynch was born in Dublin in 1945. His novel is The Winner of Sorrow (Dublin, New Island Books, 2005), about the poet William Cowper (1731-1800). His poetry collections include Endsville (1967); No Die Cast (Dublin, New Writers Press, 1969); Outside the Pheasantry (Gorey, Funge Arts Centre, 1974); Perpetual Star (Dublin, Raven Arts Press, 1981); […]
Seamas Mac Annaidh born Dublin 1961, and grew up and was educated Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh. His novels are Cuaifeach Mo Londubh Buí (Baila Átha Cliath, Coiscéim 1983); Mo Dhá Mhicí (Coiscéim 1986); Rubble Na Mickies (Coiscéim, 1990); An Deireadh (Coiscéim, 1996) and Diosco De (Coiscéim, 2006). His short story collections are Féirín, Scéalta agus Eile […]
(Frederick) Louis MacNeice was born in Belfast in 1907, brought up in Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim and educated in England. He studied Classics and Philosophy at Oxford and both of these subjects informed his poetry. He was known as a translator, literary critic, playwright, autobiographer, BBC producer and feature writer as well as poet. His poetry […]
Liam Mac Uistin was born in Dublin in 1938. His published work includes the novels Esperanza and Dordd (Báile Átha Cliath, Clóchomhar, 1994), for which he won Oireachtas awards, and Mac an Easpaig (Clóchomhar, 1997). His published plays are Pocléim and Liombó (An Clóchamhar), and The Glory and the Dream (Delaware Press, USA). His other […]
George McWhirter was born in Belfast in 1939 and left to live in Spain in 1965. His poetry collections include Catalan Poems (Ottawa, Oberon Press, 1971), which shared the Commonwealth Prize for Poetry with Chinua Achebe in 1972; Queen of the Sea (Oberon Press, 1976); The Island Man ( Oberon Press, 1981); Fire Before Dark […]
Derek Mahon was born in Belfast in 1941. His poetry collections are Night-Crossing (UK, Oxford University Press, 1968); Lives (OUP,1972); The Snow Party (OUP, 1975); Poems 1962-1978 (OUP, 1979); Courtyards in Delft (OUP, 1981); The Hunt By Night (OUP, 1982); Antarctica (Oldcastle, Co Meath, Gallery Books, 1985); Selected Poems (Oldcastle, Co Meath, The Gallery Press, […]
Hugh Maxton (pseudonym of W.J. McCormack) was born near Aughrim in Co Wicklow in 1947. He lived intermittently in Hungary over a period of ten years, and has published translations into English of poems by Agnes Nemes Nagy, Sándor Wéöres, and Endre Ady. His poetry as Hugh Maxton includes Stones (Dublin, Allen Figgis, 1970); The […]
Cormac Millar is the pen name of Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin, who was born in Cork in 1950 and teaches Italian at Trinity College Dublin. Apart from his academic publications, he is a literary translator and crime novelist. His novels are An Irish Solution (Dublin, Penguin Ireland, 2004); and The Grounds (Penguin Ireland, 2006). He lives […]
Lorna Shaughnessy was born in Belfast. Her poetry collections are Torching The Brown River (Cliffs of Moher, Salmon Poetry, 2008); and The Witness Tree (Salmon Poetry, 2011) She has published two translations of contemporary Mexican poetry, Mother Tongue: Selected Poems by Pura López Colomé (Galway, Arlen House, 2007); and If We Have Lost our Oldest […]
Ronan Sheehan was born in Dublin in 1953. His novels are Tennis Players (Dublin, Co-Op Books, 1977); and Foley’s Asia (Dublin, The Lilliput Press, 1999). His volume of short stories is Boy with an injured eye (Dingle, Brandon Books, 1983). He has won a Hennessy Literary Award for short stories; The Rooney Award, 1983; and […]
Michael Smith was born in Dublin in 1942. He founded New Writers’ Press in 1967, which published Thomas McGreevey, Denis Devlin, Brian Coffey, and other neglected modernist poets, as well as numerous younger poets. He was also a founder and editor of the literary magazine The Lace Curtain. His own collections are With the Woodnymphs […]
Jane Francesca Wilde, also known as Speranza, was born Jane Frances Agnes Elgee, in Dublin, probably in 1821. She witnessed the funeral of Thomas Davis in 1845 and subsequently read his poetry, which awakened her to Irish nationalism. Her grandfather, Archdeacon Elgee, rector of Wexford, was so popular that he was left in peace by […]
James Stern was born in Co Meath in 1904. He emigrated to South Africa and later to Frankfurt and New York. His books include The Heartless Land (London, MacMillan, 1932); Something Wrong (MacMillan); The Man who was Loved (MacMillan); The Stories of Jimmy Stern (MacMillan, 1968) and The Hidden Damage (London, The Chelsea Press, with […]
MacDara Woods was born in Dublin in 1942. His collections of poetry include Decimal D. Sec Drinks in a Bar in Marrakesh (Dublin, New Writers Press, 1970); Early Morning Matins (Dublin, The Gallery Press, 1973); Stopping the Lights in Ranelagh (Dublin, The Dedalus Press, 1987); Miz Moon (The Dedalus Press, 1988); The Hanged Man Was […]
