Introduction
Mary O'Donnell (born 1954) is an Irish novelist and poet, a journalist, broadcaster and teacher.
Biography
O'Donnell was born in County Monaghan to a Catholic middle-class family close to the border with Northern Ireland. Her Kilkenny-born father held a B. Ag from University College Cork, was branch manager at Killmallock Creamery, but transferred to Monaghan to become Town of Monaghan Co-op's first Catholic General Manager in 1947. Her Monaghan born mother Maureen (née Macklin) trained in nursing but did not complete her studies. She has one sister, Margaret, b. 1960. O'Donnell was educated at St. Louis Convent Monaghan and went to college to Maynooth University, formerly St. Patrick's College, in Maynooth. There she gained a degree in German and philosophy and an MA in German studies, followed by a First Class Hons Higher Diploma in education, which she used to become a language and drama teacher. She married her husband Martin Nugent when she was 23. They had one daughter, Anna O'Donnell Nugent. They live in Kildare.
O'Donnell left teaching to work as a Drama Critic and journalist on the Sunday Tribune (1988-1991). It was then that her literary output increased. O'Donnell became a regular contributor to The Irish Times, The Irish Independent and on Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) as well as on various literary journals. Her first novel, The Light-Makers, was a best-seller and won the Sunday Tribune's Best New Irish Novel for 1992.
She has written and published four novels, including The Elysium Testament and Where They Lie, seven collections of poetry (including Those April Fevers Arc UK 2015), two volumes of short stories and radio broadcasts and won several awards for her writing in both fiction and poetry. In 2007 she was writer-in-residence at the Princess Grace Irish Library in Monaco. Her work has been translated into Hungarian, for which she was co-recipient of the 2012 Irodalmi Jelen Award for Translation. The recently published work Giving Shape to the Moment: the Art of Mary O'Donnell, Poet, Novelist & Short-story Writer includes a selection of essays responding to her writing in each genre, an interview from Irish academic Dr Anne Fogarty, and offers a powerful overview of her contribution to Irish letters.
O'Donnell has taught creative writing at Maynooth University, was a mentor on the Carlow University Pittsburgh MFA in Creative Writing programme for eleven years, and also contributed on the faculty of the University of Iowa's summer writing programme at Trinity College, Dublin for three years. Today, she teaches Poetry on Galway University's MA in Creative Writing. She is a member of the Irish Writers' Union, a Board Member of the Irish Writers Centre, is a member of Aosdána and served for three years on Maynooth University's Governing Authority, representing arts and culture.
O'Donnell has been a judge for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the Hennessy Literary Award, the Strokestown International Poetry Competition, Poetry Now and the Irish Times/Mountains to Sea Poetry Prize.
Awards
- Sunday Tribune Best New Irish Novel in 1992,
- The William Allingham Award.
- The Listowel Writers’ Week Short Story Prize.
- Hennessy Literary Award shortlisting, 1989.
- Prize-winner in the V.S. Pritchett Short Story Competition (UK), 2000.
- Frank O'Connor International Short Story Prize shortlisting, 2008
- The Fish International Short Story Award, 2011
- Runner-up, Cardiff International Poetry Competition, 2011
- Co-winner of the Irodälmi Jelen translation prize.
- President's Alumni Award at NUI Maynooth 2011.
- Irish Times Literature Awards - nominated twice.