Mary Dorcey

Dorcey was born in County Dublin, Ireland.[1] She was the first Irish student at the Open University in England, and attended Paris Diderot University in Paris, France.[2] She has lived and worked in the United States, England, France, Spain, and Japan, and now resides in County Wicklow.[1][3][4]

Dorcey was the first Irish woman to address gay and lesbian lives in poetry and fiction. [2][5] She came out in 1974. She joined the Irish Women's Liberation Movement in 1972, and was a founding member of Irish Women United, Women for Radical Change, and The Movement for Sexual Liberation.[2][6][7] Her first collection of poetry, Kindling, was published in London, 1987 by the feminist publishing house Onlywomen Press. She has since published six additional poetry collections, one novel, a novella and a collection of prize winning short stories.[1] [2]

Her poetry and fiction is taught (see Academia.edu and Google) at universities throughout Europe,the United States and Canada. It has attracted widespread research over the past 30 years and has been the subject of countless academic essays and critiques. It is reproduced in more than one hundred anthologies representing Irish, Gay and Women's literature.

Her poems are taught on both the Irish Junior Certificate English curriculum and on the British O Level English curriculum. 'First Love' has been selected once more for the revised Junior Cycle and was also included in the BBC Anthology 'A Hundred Favourite Poems of Childhood.'

She has won five major awards for literature from the Arts Council of Ireland in 1990, 1995, 1999, 2005, and 2008.[1]

Dorcey's writing is noted as the first work of Irish literature to portray romantic and erotic relationships between women.i.e. "A Noise from the Woodshed" Poolbeg 1989. And "Biography of Desire.'Poolbeg.1997. Her themes include the cathartic role of the outsider, political injustice, and the nature of the erotic power to subvert and transfigure.

Her work has been performed on radio and television (RTÉ, BBC, and Channel 4.) and her stories have been dramatized for radio (BBC) and for stage productions in Ireland, Britain and Australia: 'In the Pink' (The Raving Beauties) and, 'Sunny Side Plucked.'

Dorcey's poetry and fiction has been reproduced in more than one hundred anthologies representing Irish, gay, and women's literature. Her poems have been performed on radio and television stations, such as BBC, RTÉ, and Channel 4. and have been taught on the English curriculum for the Irish Junior Certificate and British GCSEs.[2]

'"First Love"' was selected for the revised Junior Cycle and included in the BBC anthology, A Hundred Favourite Poems of Childhood.[8] Her stories have been dramatized for radio and stage productions in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Australia.[2] In March 2023, her poem "Summer" was broadcast on the London Underground to mark St Patrick's Day.[1]

She is a research associate at Trinity College Dublin,[2] where she conducted contemporary English literature seminars and led a creative writing workshop during her ten years as a writer in residence at the Centre for Gender and Women's Studies. She also taught Creative Writing courses at the School for Justice at University College Dublin.[2][1]

• Lesbian poetry

• Holoch, Naomi (2010). The Vintage Book of International Lesbian Fiction. Doubleday Publishing Group. p. 368.