Books by Mary O'Donnell

Mary O'Donnell was born in Monaghan, educated at St. Louis Convent Monaghan and later at St. Patrick's College Maynooth. She holds a BA in German and Philosophy, has studied German to MA level and received a first class honours Higher Diploma in Education at Maynooth. During the last twenty-eight years her career has reflected various interests. She has been a teacher of English, German and Drama; she worked with the development agency Concern; she has been a translator and worked in journalism as The Sunday Tribune's Drama Critic for three years, following on which she freelanced for a further three years. She presented and scripted three series of poetry programmes for the national broadcaster RTE Radio. She has a particular interest in poetry in translation and during 2005 and 2006 researched, scripted and presented the RTE Radio programme 'Crossing the Lines', a series which focused on European poetry and included readings from the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Greece, France, Germany, Spain, Norway and Finland. Today, she teaches creative writing with various groups and for four summers worked on the faculty of the University of Iowa's summer writing program at Trinity College Dublin. She is currently a poetry mentor with Carlow University Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. She has published five previous poetry collections, including the 2007 volume The Place of Miracles (New Island, Dublin), as well as three novels and two collections of short fiction. In December 2001 she was elected to the membership of Aosdana, administered by the Irish Arts Council (An Chomhairle Ealaine), which honours artists engaged in literature, music and the visual arts who have made an outstanding contribution to the arts in Ireland. She is a member of the Irish Writers' Union and has served for three years as an external representative for arts and culture on the Governing Authority of the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. Mary O'Donnell now lives near Straffan, County Kildare.