Doireann Ní Ghríofa

Doireann Ní Ghríofa is an Irish poet and essayist who writes in both Irish and English.

Biography

Doireann Ní Ghríofa was born in Galway in 1981, but grew up in County Clare. She now lives in County Cork.

Ní Ghríofa has been published widely in literary magazines in Ireland and abroad, such as Poetry, The Irish Times, Irish Examiner, Prairie Schooner, and The Stinging Fly.[1] In 2012 her poem "Fáinleoga" won the Wigtown Award for poetry written in Scottish Gaelic.[2] Ní Ghríofa was selected for the prestigious Ireland Chair of Poetry Bursary Award 2014–2015.[3]

In 2016 her book Clasp was shortlisted for The Irish Times Poetry Now Award, the national poetry prize of Ireland[4] and was awarded the Michael Hartnett Award.[5] She was also awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2016.

A trilingual collaborative pamphlet written with Choctaw poet LeAnne Howe appeared in 2017.[6]

In 2018, Ní Ghríofa received the Premio Ostana literary award (Italy) [7] and was chosen as a Seamus Heaney Centre Fellow [8] at Queen's University Belfast.

Ní Ghríofa collaborated with the artist Alice Maher on the limited edition book Nine Silences published by Salvage Press in 2018.[9]

She is a recipient of a Lannan Literary Award Fellowship.[10]

In 2019 she was a contributor to A New Divan: A Lyrical Dialogue between East and West (Gingko Library).

In 2020 her book A Ghost in the Throat won Book of the Year at the An Post Irish Book of the Year awards, the Foyles Non-Fiction Book of the Year award and the Hodges Figgis Irish Book of the Year award.[11] It was shortlisted for the 2021 Folio Prize,[12] named as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2021.[13] The book was largely written as she sat in her car on the roof of a multi-storey car park in Ballincollig, after dropping her daughter to creche.[14]

In 2021, A Ghost in the Throat won the £10,000 James Tait Black Prize for biography.[15][16]

Ní Ghríofa's poem "Escape: A Chorus in Capes" from her 2021 collection To Star The Dark was deemed Highly Commended by the Forward Prize For Poetry.[17] The collection also features poems "While Bleeding", "Craquelure" and "Lunulae." To Star the Dark is counted amongst the 'Best Poetry of 2021' by The Irish Times.[17]

Bibliography

Poetry collections
  • Résheoid (Coiscéim, 2011)
  • Dúlasair (Coiscéim, 2012)
  • Dordéan, do Chroí / A Hummingbird, your Heart (Smithereens Press, 2014) [18]
  • Clasp (Dedalus Press, 2015; ISBN 9781910251027)
  • Oighear (Coiscéim, 2017)
  • Singing, Still - A Libretto for the 1847 Choctaw Gift to the Irish for Famine Relief [19] (In collaboration with LeAnn Howe, 2017)
  • Lies (Dedalus Press, 2018; ISBN 9781910251393)
  • To Star the Dark (Dedalus Press, 2021; ISBN 9781910251867)

Prose

Critical response

Of Ní Ghríofa's book Clasp, Maya Catherine Popa in Poetry wrote: "The poems excel in their consideration of motherhood, particularly its paradoxical losses and gains, separation and unity… In Ní Ghríofa’s English debut, what seem to be long-considered obsessions are explored with tenderness and unflinching curiosity. 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."[20]

According to Clíona Ní Riordáin of Southword, "The woman’s body is central to the collection, highlighted, visible, unconquered. Forgotten bones are reclaimed, gendered territory is staked out; it is clear that Ní Ghríofa’s has a voice which will not be silenced… In Clasp Ní Ghríofa has signalled that she is a poetic force to be reckoned with."[21]

Nina McLaughlin of the New York Times has said of A Ghost in the Throat: "[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, and the book reveals, perhaps above all else, how we absorb what we love - a child, a lover, a poem - and how it changes us from the inside out."[22]

Documentary

The 2022 documentary Aisling Trí Néallaibh: Clouded Reveries (directed by Ciara NicChormaic) is an intimate exploration of Ní Ghríofa’s world and creative process, captured through intimate performances of her own work and in-depth interviews.

References
  1. Doireann Ní Ghríofa, Ennis Bookclub Festival.
  2. "2012 Winners - Gaelic", Wigtown Book Festival.
  3. Gerard Beirne, "Doireann Ní Ghríofa selected for the Ireland Chair of Poetry Bursary Award" Archived 2014-07-22 at the Wayback Machine, Numéro Cinq.
  4. Mackin, Laurence. "And then there were five: Poetry Now shortlist announced". The Irish Times.
  5. "Two poets to share Michael Hartnett Poetry Award 2016 - What's on - Limerick Leader". www.limerickleader.ie. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
  6. Howe, LeAnne. "Famine bonds: Choctaw and Irish poets combine". The Irish Times.
  7. "Doireann NÍ GHRÍOFA - Premio Giovani". www.chambradoc.it.
  8. ""Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry"".
  9. "100 Archive".
  10. "Lannan Foundation". Lannan Foundation.
  11. "An Post Irish Book of the Year 2020 revealed". www.irishtimes.com. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  12. "Folio Prize 2021 shortlist announced". Books+Publishing. 11 February 2021. Archived from the original on 18 May 2021. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  13. "A Ghost in the Throat". Doireann Ní Ghríofa. Retrieved 9 February 2022.
  14. "She's there in that gathering of ghosts I carry with me-author Doireann Ní Ghríofa on the 18th century poet who has haunted her since her teens". www.independent.ie. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  15. "James Tait Black Prizes shortlists have been announced | The Bookseller". www.thebookseller.com. Retrieved 5 May 2021.
  16. "Doireann Ní Ghríofa wins the UK's longest-running literary award | Irish Examiner". www.irishexaminer.com. 25 August 2021. Retrieved 18 October 2021.
  17. "To Star the Dark". Doireann Ní Ghríofa. Retrieved 9 February 2022.
  18. "SP8 - 'Dordéan, do Chroí -- A Hummingbird, your Heart' by Doireann Ní Ghríofa", Smithereens Press.
  19. "Singing, Still".
  20. Foundation, Poetry (13 April 2022). "Forever Writing from Ireland by Maya C. Popa". Poetry Magazine.
  21. "Southword Journal". www.munsterlit.ie.
  22. MacLaughlin, Nina (1 June 2021). "A Book About Absorbing What We Love Until It Transforms Us". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 9 February 2022.
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