ABOUT
THE AUTHORS
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| Demot
Somers |
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"Reveals
the extraordinary stories, and the adventure, hidden in the landscape".
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-Dawson
Stelfox, leader,
Irish Everest expedition
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 We
are delighted to welcome Dermot Somers to open Scríobh.Mountaineer,
Gaelic scholar, TV presenter, and award-winning writer, Somers was
born in Roscommon and now lives in Drogheda. He has written and presented
over twenty programmes for television He has completed numerous mountaineering
expeditions worldwide including most notably Mt. Everest in 1993.
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| His books include
Mountains & Other Ghosts (1990), At the Rising of the Moon
(1994) and Rince ar na Ballai (2002) Dermot is possibly best
known for his many programmes on wild landscape, culture, travel and
adventure These include Cuairt na Cruinne, Bealach o Dheas, Turas
Feasa, and the series of nomadic journeys through Siberia, the
Sahara, and Iran, Turas i mBaol. |
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| Nell McCafferty |
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'Nell's
distinctive voice, both written and spoken, has had a powerful and
provocative place in Irish society … Fascinating … Evocative … Riveting'
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-Irish
Times-
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 Nell
Mc Cafferty was born in 1944 in Derry's Bogside. She graduated from
Queen's University, Belfast and then studied in France. She was on
the dole for two years in Derry, with sporadic employment as a substitute
teacher, before finding her true calling with in her late twenties
when she became a journalist. |
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| In over thirty years in that profession
she has been one of Ireland most controversial commentators. She has
written for publications ranging from the The Irish Times to Hot Press.
Her books include A Woman to Blame, Goodnight Sisters,
Nell on the North, Peggy Deery and Nell She lives in
Dublin. |
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| Celia de Fréine |
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"In
this incredibly powerful collection, Celia de Fréine has given us
an absolute page-turner. Fiacha Fola is the best collection of poetry
I have read this year."
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-Irish
Times-
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 Celia
de Fréine is a poet, critic, dramatist and screenwriter, in Irish
and English. A TV episode she wrote for the Irish-language TG4 drama
serial Ros na Rún was shortlisted for 1998 Pan Celtic Film and TV
Festival. Her poetry collections are Faoi Chabáistí is Ríonacha (Gallimh,
Cló Iar-Chonnachta, 2001), which is accompanied by a CD of her reading
her work; and Fiacha Fola (Cló Iar-Chonnachta, 2004). Her plays include
Nara Turas é in Aistear (Amharclann de hÍde, 1999); and Anraith Neantóige/Nettle
Soup (Aisling Ghéar, 2004). Her many awards include The Cló Iar-Chonnachta
Literary Prize, 2004; and The Patrick Kavanagh Award (1994). She lives
in Dublin and spends part of the year in Carraroe, Co Galway. |
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| Leontia
Flynn |
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"These
are poems to move from room to room reading, just as we imagine
they might have been written, by a poet remembering and discovering
the world."
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-The
Poetry Book Society-
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Leontia
Flynn was born in Belfast in 1974. She was awarded an Eric Gregory
Award in 2001, and has recently completed a PhD at Queen's College,
Belfast on Medbh McGuckian. These Days is her first poetry
collection, and is shortlisted for the Forward Prize Best First
Collection.
The Poetry Book
Society comments on her inclusion in the Next Generation promotion:
'Her poems cover a wonderful range of subjects. She writes movingly
about her father but is terrific at simply tugging away at a subject
until it releases poetry. ‘Bed Poem’ is a lovely example; pleasingly
direct and still full of that sense of wonder that young poets in
particular seem to possess.'
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| Gerard Reidy
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"Ger
Reidy's poetry is inspired by the untamed landscape of Mayo, his
lyrics are peppered with hard-hitting musings on the periennial
problems that have bedevilled life on the fringe"
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-Irish
Times-
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 Gerard
Reidy was born
near Westport in Co. Mayo in 1958, qualified as a Civil Engineer in
1979 and started writing poetry in 1980.
He began submitting material for publication in 1989, and his poems
have appeared in publications including The Healing Word, Breaking
the Skin, Ambit, Poetry Ireland Review, Cyphers, Force 10, The Shop,
and in 2003 the Moscow poetry
journal 'Modern Literature'.
He has read at Cuirt Literary Festival, Scriobh Literary
Festival, Bewley's in Dublin, The Model Arts Centre in Sligo
the Linenhall Arts Centre in Castlebar and The Arts Show
on RTE. He has also featured in The Green Room on Lyric FM. |
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| He has won numerous national poetry
competitions including The Allingham Prize, Boyle Arts Festival
Poetry competition, The George Moore Poetry competition, The Tipperary
Poetry Competition, The Maria Edgeworth Competition and
the Laois Writer's Weekend Poetry Competition. He has also
been the recipient of a number of bursaries and residencies including
Mayo County Council Heinrich Boll House, The Tyrone Guterie Centre
at Annaghmakerrig, an Arts Council Bursery in 2002 and
an international bursary at Can Serrat in Catalonia. |
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| His first collection, Pictures from
a Reservation, published by Dedalus was launched at Sligo's Scriobh
Literary Festival in 1998. His next collection is due for publication
in 2005. |
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| John Montague |
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"...a
world-class poet, one of that extra-ordinary group - perhaps a dozen?
- who illuminate our lives, not just for now, but for as long as
words have meaning."
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-Carolyn
Kizer-
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 One
of Ireland's best-known poets, John Montague was born in New York.
His father, an Ulster Catholic, moved his family there in the 1920s
to escape capture for his Republican activities. At age 4, the young
Brooklynite was returned to County Tyrone to live with two aunts.
As a schoolboy Montague developed an interest in Irish poetry. His
first poems were published when he was a student at University College
Dublin in the 40s. In 1953, Montague, also a short story writer and
critic of note, left Ireland for Yale on a Fulbright Fellowship. He
returned in 1956 with his first wife to work at the Irish Tourist
Office. |
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| His first collection, Poisoned Lands
(1961), coincided with his move to Paris. Hymn to the New Omagh
Road (1968) and The Bread God (1972) reflect his continued
interest in Northern Ireland's affairs. After his long poem The
Rough Field (1972) was published, Montague returned to Ireland
with his second wife. He has taught in Berkeley, New York, Paris,
and Ireland. In 1987, New York's then governor, Mario Cuomo, presented
Montague with a citation for his literary achievements and contributions
to the people of New York. |
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| Elizabeth Wassell |
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"an
engaging read, rich in local colour, strong on emotional detail
and bitten with dark social satire".
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-Irish
Times-
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 Born
in New York and now residing in Ireland, Elizabeth Wassell's first
novel, The Honey Plain, was published in 1997 by Wolfhound
Press in Dublin to wide acclaim. Her second novel will be published
next year. Irish poet Brendan Kennelly called The Honey Plain,
". . a satirical comic novel with a serious feel . . . a touching
love story well wrought and well told. ." |
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| Elizabeth's second
novel, Sleight of Hand, appeared in 1999. It was well reviewed
in the Irish Times and Magill. Her third novel, The Thing He Loves,
was published by Brandon in 2001. Her short stories have appeared
in the Dublin Review and the Irish Times. At present she is completing
a new novel |
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| Pat Boran |
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"Pat
is a poet who is consumed with a passionate curiosity about people
and about things. He is blessed with the gift of transforming his
experience into poetry resonant with vivid images and arresting
observations"
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-Cork
Examiner-
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 Pat
Boran was born in Portlaoise in 1963 and currently lives in Dublin
where he has been Writer-in-Residence with Dublin City Libraries,
Dublin Corporation and Dublin City University. At present he is Programme
Director of the Dublin Writers Festival and publisher of the Dedalus
Press. To date he has published four full-length collections of poetry,
The Unwound Clock, (1989) Familiar Things (1993), The
Shape of Water (1996) and As the Hand, the Glove (2001)
His first short fiction for children, All the Way from China
(1998) was shortlisted for the Bisto Book of the Year Award. |
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| His non-fiction
work includes The Portable Creative Writing Workshop (1999)
and A Short History of Dublin (2000). He currently presents
the RTÉ Radio One poetry programme, The Enchanted Way. 2005
sees the reissue of a revised and expanded edition of The Portable
Creative Writing Workshop from New Island. |
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| Damian Smyth |
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"The
poems about family tease out sentiment (his grandmother's 'beautiful
old voice squeaking and creaking') without blowing its late-night
sax, side-stepping the over-familiar and selecting poignant details
such as his mother's fondness for dreaming through clothes catalogues."
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-Poetry
London-
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 Damian
Smyth was born in Downpatrick, Co Down, in 1962. His collection are
Downpatrick Races (Belfast, Lagan Press, 2000); and The Down Recorder
(Lagan Press, 2004). He has also written a stage play, Soldiers of
the Queen, which was premiered in Downpatrick, 2002 and later staged
at the Belfast Festival at Queen's, and on tour. It is published by
Lagan Press, 2002. He is a former deputy and arts editor of Fortnight
magazine and former editor of Causeway, the journal of cultural traditions.
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| He is a former reviewer of theatre in
Ireland for the London Independent and has written and reviewed extensively
on theatre in Ireland as well as on literature, visual arts and cultural
politics for a variety of publications and on television and radio.
He has edited Joseph Tomelty: All Souls' Night and Other Plays (2002);
John Hewitt: Two Plays (1999); and Martin Lynch: Five Plays (2002).
He has been Public Affairs Officer with the Arts Council of Northern
Ireland since 1995. |
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| Paul Durcan |
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"To
have heard him read adds another pleasure to the reading of his
work - but the voice speaks clearly on the page in poems of harrowing
intimacy, politics and love. He holds a mirror up to himself: but
we can see ourselves over his shoulder, whoever we are."
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-Carol
Ann Duffy-
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 Paul
Durcan was born in Dublin in 1944. In 1974 he won the Patrick Kavanagh
Award and more recently the Irish American Cultural Institute Poetry
Award (1989), The Whitebread Prize (for Daddy, Daddy, 1990) and the
London Poetry Book Society choice for The Berlin Wall Café. His books
include Endsville [with Brian Lynch] (1967);Teresa's Bar (1976); Jesus,
Break his Fall (1980); Ark of the North (1982); The Berlin Wall Café
(1985); Going Home to Russia (1987);Daddy, Daddy (1990); and Crazy
About Women (1991, to coincide with the exhibition of the same name).
A Snail in My Prime/ New and Selected Poems, was published in 1993.
This has been followed by Give Me Your Hand (1994); Christmas Day
(1997); Greetings to Our Friends in Brazil (1999); and Cries of an
Irish Caveman (2001). He is a member of Aosdána and lives in Dublin
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| Medbh McGuckian
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"This
poet challenges the reader with poems you must read like fire-flames
-- fascinating, glimmering experiences that conjure surreal images
dissolving into each other with such mental speed that on first
reading you receive the sensation, the emotional charge, the imagery,
without being at all certain of the poem's actuality. . ."
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-Poetry
Ireland Review-
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 Medbh
McGuckian was born in Belfast. She has worked as a teacher and an
editor and is a former Writer in Residence at Queen's University,
Belfast (1985-8). Her first published poems appeared in two pamphlets,
Single Ladies: Sixteen Poems and Portrait of Joanna,
in 1980, for which she received an Eric Gregory Award. In 1981 she
co-published Trio Poetry 2 with Damian Gorman and Douglas Marshall,
and in 1989 she collaborated with Nuala Archer on Two Women, Two Shores.
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| Her first major
collection, The Flower Master (1982) was awarded a Rooney prize
for Irish Literature, an Ireland Arts Council Award (both 1982) and
an Alice Hunt Bartlett Award (1983). She is also the winner of the
1989 Cheltenham Prize for her collection On Ballycastle Beach. Medbh
McGuckian has edited an anthology, The Big Striped Golfing Umbrella:
Poems by Young People from Northern Ireland (1985) and has translated
into English (with Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin) The Water Horse (1999),
a selection of poems in Irish by Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill. A volume of
Selected Poems: 1978-1994 was published in 1997, and her latest collection
is The Book of the Angel (2004). |
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| Dan Rhodes |
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“Rhodes'
effortless prose and quick wit make him a master of the quip and
character sketch."
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-Publishers
Weekly-
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 Dan
Rhodes was born in 1972. He studied Humanities at the University of
Glamorgan and later returned there for an MA in Writing, which he
completed in 1997. He has worked on a fruit and vegetable farm, in
the stockroom of a book shop, behind the bar of his parents' pub,
as a teacher in Ho Chi Minh City, and, sporadically, as a full-time
writer.
He has published two collections of short fiction: Anthropology:
And a Hundred Other Stories (2000), which contains very short,
darkly humorous stories about romantic relationships, and Don't
Tell Me the Truth About Love (2001), which consists of seven longer
stories on a similar theme. |
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| His first novel, Timoleon Vieta Come
Home: A Sentimental Journey, was published in April 2003, and
is about a dog's travels across Italy. In 2004 he stunned the book
world by pretending to be a Frenchwoman, changing his name to Danuta
de Rhodes and writing The Little White Car. |
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| Dan Rhodes was recently named by Granta
magazine as one of twenty 'Best of Young British Novelists'. |
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| DBC Pierre |
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“The
writing is simply terrific. In much the same way that noir novelists
like James Ellroy seem steeped in the rhythms and textures of jazz,
there is a jagged, punk-rock sensibility to Pierre's prose, absolutely
his own.”
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-The
New York Times -
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 DBC
Pierre was raised in Mexico between the ages of seven and twenty-three,
although he has also travelled extensively. He lived a very privileged
life in the milieu of that 2% of Mexico that holds the country's wealth,
and spent much time in the USA. Despite a very unrealistic, or 'fairy-tale'
childhood, he found himself more in tune as a child with the other
98% of Mexicans, and increasingly escaped home to run with the street
crowd. When, at sixteen, his father fell gravely ill, he was largely
entrusted with the family home, its cars and staff, and without recourse
to counsel or reason, in his grief embarked upon a life of blithe
self-destruction, alongside another half-dozen junior rakes. Only
two of them survived their twenties, and then only just. |
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| DBC Pierre has
worked as a designer and cartoonist, and currently lives in Ireland.
Vernon God Little, his first novel, won the 2003 Bollinger Everyman
Woodhouse Award, the Whitbread Prize for Best First Novel, and the
2003 Man Booker Prize. He is currently at work on his second novel.
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| Dermot
Healy |
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| Dermot
Healy was born in Westmeath in 1947 and now lives in Co. Sligo. His
short stories are collected as Banished Misfortune (1984). His novels
are Fighting with Shadows (1984); The Goat's Song (1994); and Sudden
Times (1999). His autobiography is The Bend for Home (1996). His plays
include The Long Swim (1988); Curtains (1990); and On Broken Wings
(1992). His version of Lorca's Blood Wedding was staged in 1989. His
poetry includes Neighbours' Lights (1992); The Ballyconnel Colours
(1995); and The Reed Bed (2001). His awards include the Hennessy Award
(1974 and 1976); the Tom Gallon Award (1983); and the Encore Award
(1995). He is a member of Aosdána, |
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