Dennis O’Driscoll

Dennis O’Driscoll is a contemporary Irish poet born in Thurles, County Tipperary in 1954. He has written eight books of poetry, two chapbooks and a collection of essays and reviews. He has also edited and compiled a volume of contemporary quotations about poets and poetry.

His poetry publications include Kist (Dolmen Press, 1982), Hidden Extras (Anvil Press, London/Dedalus Press, Dublin, 1987), Long Story Short (Anvil Press/Dedalus Press, 1993), Quality Time (Anvil Press, 1997), Weather Permitting (Anvil Press, 1999), which was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and shortlisted for the Irish Times Poetry Prize 2001, and Exemplary Damages (Anvil Press, 2002). His New and Selected Poems (Anvil Press, 2004) was a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation. His two chapbooks are The Bottom Line (Dedalus Editions, 1994) and 50 O’Clock (Happy Dragons Press, UK, 2005). His latest collection of poems, Reality Check, is available in the UK (Anvil Press, 2007) and the US (Copper Canyon Press, 2008).

Among numerous anthologies in which his work appears are Staying Alive (Bloodaxe), Scanning the Century (Penguin), 20th Century Irish Poems (Faber) and The Poetry [Chicago] Anthology (Ivan R. Dee). A substantial selection of his work is included in The Wake Forest Series of Irish Poetry 1 (Wake Forest University Press, USA, 2005).

His awards include a Lannan Literary Award in 1999, the 2005 E.M. Forster Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the 2006 O’Shaughnessy Award for Poetry from the Center for Irish Studies in Minnesota.

Also a widely-published critic, Troubled Thoughts, Majestic Dreams (Gallery Press, 2001) contains a selection of his essays and reviews. As a reviewer, he has contributed to the Times Literary Supplement, London Review of Books, Parnassus, London Magazine, Poetry (Chicago), Harvard Review and A Poetry Criticism Reader (University of Iowa Press). His Bloodaxe Book of Poetry Quotations appeared in 2006; an American edition is to be published by Copper Canyon Press in early 2008.

He has given readings at the Poetry Room in Harvard University, at Poetry International in London and at many festivals of literature including Hay-on-Wye and Cheltenham.

Among the publications in which his poems have appeared are:

[Ireland] The Sunday Independent, The Sunday Tribune, The Irish Times, Poetry Ireland Review, Metre;

[UK] London Magazine, New Statesman, The Sunday Times, The Independent, The Spectator, Times Literary Supplement, The Guardian, Poetry Review, PN Review, London Review of Books, Poetry London, Thumbscrew.

[U.S.A.] The Southern Review, Yale Review, Verse, New England Review, Columbia, TriQuarterly, Poetry [Chicago], Poetry International, Five Points, The Paris Review, Parnassus and Harvard Review.

A member of Aosdána, the Irish Academy of Artists, he has worked as a civil servant since the age of 16.