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Doireann Ní Ghríofa

ドーリン・ニー・グリーファ

Doireann Ní Ghríofa

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
1981-01-01 (Galway, Ireland)
Nationality
Irish
Languages
Irish, English
Residence History
County Cork (resident) → County Clare (grew up)

Career

Occupations
poet, essayist
Active Years
2010-

Awards

Wigtown Award (Gaelic)
2012
Work: Fáinleoga
Category:
Organization: Wigtown Book Festival
Result: winner
Ireland Chair of Poetry Bursary Award
2014
Organization: Ireland Chair of Poetry
Result: recipient
Poetry Now Award
2016
Work: Clasp
Category: 詩集
Organization: The Irish Times
Result: shortlisted
Michael Hartnett Award
2016
Work: Clasp
Organization: Michael Hartnett Award
Result: winner
Rooney Prize for Irish Literature
2016
Organization: Rooney Prize
Result: winner
Premio Ostana literary award
2018
Organization: Premio Ostana
Result: winner
Seamus Heaney Centre Fellowship
2018
Category: フェローシップ
Organization: Queen's University Belfast (Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry)
Result: fellow
Lannan Literary Award Fellowship
Organization: Lannan Foundation
Result: fellowship recipient
An Post Irish Book of the Year (Book of the Year)
2020
Work: A Ghost in the Throat
Category: ノンフィクション/伝記
Organization: Irish Book Awards
Result: winner
Foyles Non-Fiction Book of the Year
2020
Work: A Ghost in the Throat
Category: ノンフィクション
Organization: Foyles
Result: winner
Hodges Figgis Irish Book of the Year
2020
Work: A Ghost in the Throat
Category: ノンフィクション
Organization: Hodges Figgis
Result: winner
Folio Prize
2021
Work: A Ghost in the Throat
Organization: Folio Prize
Result: shortlisted
James Tait Black Prize (Biography)
2021
Work: A Ghost in the Throat
Category: 伝記
Organization: James Tait Black Prizes
Result: winner
Forward Prizes for Poetry (Highly Commended)
2021
Work: Escape: A Chorus in Capes (poem)
Category:
Organization: Forward Prizes for Poetry
Result: highly commended

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Résheoid

2011 poetry

An early Irish-language collection exploring body, memory and attachment to place.

bodymemoryplace

Clasp

2015 poetry

An English-language collection that examines motherhood, the body and ties to the past; widely praised by critics.

motherhoodthe bodymemory

Lies

2018 poetry

A 2018 collection probing intersections of language, memory and identity.

languagememoryidentity

To Star the Dark

2021 poetry

A 2021 collection that addresses the female body, personal loss and ritual imagery with powerful intensity.

female bodylossritual

A Ghost in the Throat

2020 memoir / essay

A hybrid memoir and literary investigation weaving the author's personal experience with the life of an 18th-century Irish poet; widely acclaimed and awarded.

memorywomen's historyliterary investigation

Bibliography

  • Résheoid (Coiscéim, 2011)
  • Dúlasair (Coiscéim, 2012)
  • Dordéan, do Chroí / A Hummingbird, your Heart (Smithereens Press, 2014)
  • Clasp (Dedalus Press, 2015)
  • Oighear (Coiscéim, 2017)
  • Singing, Still (with LeAnne Howe, 2017)
  • Lies (Dedalus Press, 2018)
  • To Star the Dark (Dedalus Press, 2021)
  • A Ghost in the Throat (Tramp Press / Biblioasis, 2020)

Adaptations

  • Documentary 'Aisling Trí Néallaibh: Clouded Reveries' (dir. Ciara NicChormaic, 2022)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
bilingual writing (Irish and English)lyrical, personal voicehybrid forms blending essay and poetry
Recurring Motifs
the bodymotherhoodghosts and absencememory and historylanguage

Legacy

Regarded as an important contemporary Irish-language and English-language poet and essayist; her collections and the memoir 'A Ghost in the Throat' have won multiple awards and established her as a significant voice in contemporary Irish literature.

In Popular Culture

  • Featured in the 2022 documentary 'Aisling Trí Néallaibh: Clouded Reveries'

Quotes

  • [It is] a powerful, bewitching blend of memoir and literary investigation... Ní Ghríofa is deeply attuned to the gaps, silences and mysteries in women's lives.
    Source: The New York Times (review by Nina McLaughlin) (2021)
  • The poems excel in their consideration of motherhood... The collection’s section titles, 'Clasp,' 'Cleave,' 'Clench,' suggest the muscularity of attachment to the past, place, and the body that drives the poetic impulse.
    Source: Poetry Magazine (Maya C. Popa) (2022)

Trivia

  • Much of 'A Ghost in the Throat' was reportedly written while the author sat in her car on the roof of a multi-storey car park after dropping her daughter at creche.
  • Published a trilingual collaborative pamphlet with Choctaw poet LeAnne Howe in 2017.
  • Active as a bilingual writer in both Irish and English.