Mayo County Council Arts Office has announced that Éilís Ní Dhuibhne will be the Force 12 2009 writer in residence. Éilís will be working with a number of writers groups and schools throughout the county over a two-week period, during the month of May and June.
Éilís Ní Dhuibhne was born in Dublin in 1954. She has written many novels, collections of short stories, plays for stage and radio, including The Bray House (Attic Press, 1990 ); Singles (Attic Press, 1992 ); The Dancers Dancing (The Blackstaff Press, 1999 ), which was shortlisted for the 2000 Orange Prize; Fox, Swallow, Scarecrow (The Blackstaff Press, 2007 ); and Dún an Airgid (Cois Life, 2008 ). Her work has won several literary awards, including the Stewart Parker Award for Drama, three Bisto awards for children’s books, American Association of Irish Studies Award for Prose, and several Oireachtas awards for novels and plays. A member of Aosdána and a teacher of creative writing, she currently teaches on the MA in creative writing at University College Dublin. She lives in south Dublin.
Since 2001, Mayo County Council has been developing the writer in residence programme associated with the Force 12 Writers’ Festival. Previous writers who have held the residency include Ré Ó Laighléis, Sean Lysaght, Máire Holmes, John Breen, and Paddy Bushe. For more information on the residency or the Force 12 Festival, which takes place on June 12 to 14 2009, please contact Mayo Arts Office on 094-9024444 ext 7558&7560 or e-mail [email protected]
