Encore Award
1 appearances
-
Edition 6 (1995) Winner
Dermot Healy
ダーモット・ヒーリー
Dāmotto Hīrī
Profile
- Gender
- Male
- Born
- 1947-11-09 （Finnea, County Westmeath, Ireland）
- Died
- 2014-06-29 （Ballyconnell, County Sligo, Ireland） age 66
- Nationality
- Irish
- Languages
- English
- Religion
- Catholicism
- Residence History
- Cavan (childhood) → London (young adulthood, various jobs) → Ballyconnell, County Sligo (adult life)
Career
- Occupations
- novelist, playwright, poet, short story writer, actor (occasional)
- Active Years
- 1970-2014
- Affiliations
- Aosdána (Irish affiliation of artists), Toscaireacht (governing body of Aosdána)
- Memberships
- Aosdána (member)
- Influenced By
- Anna Akhmatova, John Arden, Isaac Babel, Bashō, Samuel Beckett, Jorge Luis Borges, Angela Carter, J. M. Coetzee, Emily Dickinson, T. S. Eliot, Franz Kafka, Edgar Allan Poe
- Influenced
- Roddy Doyle (praised Healy), Anne Enright (praised Healy), Patrick McCabe (praised Healy), Seamus Heaney (praised Healy)
Education
| Institution | Faculty | Department | Degree | Period | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Local secondary school (Cavan) | — | — | — | — | Ireland |
Local secondary school (Cavan)
Country:
Ireland
Attended local secondary school in Cavan. No clear record of university attendance.
Awards
| Year | Award | Work | Category | Organization | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1974 | Hennessy Literary Award | — | — | Hennessy (organiser) | winner |
| 1976 | Hennessy Literary Award | — | — | Hennessy (organiser) | winner |
| 1983 | Tom Gallon Award | — | — | Tom Gallon (Society of Authors related) | winner |
| 1995 | Encore Award | A Goat's Song | — | Encore (organiser) | winner |
| 1994 | Booker Prize | A Goat's Song | — | Booker Prize judges | longlisted |
| 2011 | Poetry Now Award | A Fool's Errand | — | Poetry Now (organiser) | shortlisted |
| 2013 | International Dublin Literary Award (IMPAC) | Long Time, No See | — | International Dublin Literary Award | nominated |
Hennessy Literary Award
1974
Organization:
Hennessy (organiser)
Result:
winner
Hennessy Literary Award
1976
Organization:
Hennessy (organiser)
Result:
winner
Tom Gallon Award
1983
Organization:
Tom Gallon (Society of Authors related)
Result:
winner
Encore Award
1995
Work:
A Goat's Song
Organization:
Encore (organiser)
Result:
winner
Booker Prize
1994
Work:
A Goat's Song
Organization:
Booker Prize judges
Result:
longlisted
Poetry Now Award
2011
Work:
A Fool's Errand
Organization:
Poetry Now (organiser)
Result:
shortlisted
International Dublin Literary Award (IMPAC)
2013
Work:
Long Time, No See
Organization:
International Dublin Literary Award
Result:
nominated
Awards & Nominations
Works
Major Works
A Goat's Song
1994 Novel (fiction)Set in rural Ireland, the novel explores family, loss and memory, portraying complex relationships and the shadows of the past.
memorylossfamilyIrish locality
Sudden Times
1999 Novel (fiction)A work examining the rupture between society and the individual, delving into lives and conflicts during changing times.
social changeindividual isolationconceptions of time
Long Time, No See
2011 Novel (fiction)A novel about reunion, memory and looking back on life, combining humour and pathos to explore characters' inner lives.
reunionretrospectionidentity
Banished Misfortune (and other stories)
1982 Short story collectionA collection of early short stories featuring diverse portrayals of people set in rural and urban Ireland.
communityhuman relationsloss
Bibliography
- Banished Misfortune (short stories, 1982)
- Fighting with Shadows (1984)
- A Goat's Song (novel, 1994)
- The Bend for Home (autobiography, 1996)
- Sudden Times (novel, 1999)
- Long Time, No See (novel, 2011)
- The Collected Short Stories (2015)
- Poetry: Neighbours' Lights (1992), The Ballyconnel Colours (1995), What the Hammer (1998), The Reed Bed (2001), A Fool's Errand (2010)
- Plays: Here and There and Going to America (1985) et al.
Adaptations
- Appeared as actor in films such as The Butcher Boy (1997)
- I Could Read the Sky (appeared, 1999)
- The Guard (appeared, 2011)
Style & Themes
- Literary Style
- precise, restrained narrative voicemodern sensibility rooted in both British and Irish traditionsattention to language and etymology reflected in word choice
- Recurring Motifs
- memory and the shadow of the pastrural landscape and communityseparation and reunionthe meaning of words and names
Legacy
Dermot Healy is regarded as an important figure in contemporary Irish letters, highly praised by peers and successors. He left a wide-ranging body of work across poetry, plays and short fiction and was often lauded as a 'Celtic Hemingway' by commentators.
Academic Societies
- Aosdána
Quotes
-
"I know writing is what I do but I still don't see myself as one."
Source: Interview with Sean O'Hagan (The Observer, 2011) (2011)
Trivia
- He often wrote in a shed.
- He appeared as an actor in films including The Butcher Boy, I Could Read the Sky and The Guard.
- His funeral was held in Sligo and he was buried at Carrigans Cemetery.
- He was variously described as a 'Celtic Hemingway' and praised as one of Ireland's finest living novelists during his lifetime.