Mary Dorcey

Mary Dorcey (born 1950) is an Irish Poet, Short Story writer and Novelist.

Biography

Dorcey won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature for Literature in 1990 for her Short Story collection A Noise from the Woodshed. She is a member by peer election of 'Aosdana' the Irish Academy of Writers and Artists.

Critically acclaimed internationally for her poetry and fiction which is taught at universities throughout Europe, the United States and Canada. Widely anthologized, it is reproduced in more than one hundred collections. For more than twenty five years her poetry and fiction have attracted a wealth of international research (See Google Scholar.) and have been the subject of countless academic essays and critiques.(See Google Scholar.)

She has published five collections of poetry, one novel, one collection of short stories and one novella. Kindling 1982. A Noise from the Woodshed. 1987. Moving Into The Space Cleared by Our Mothers. 1991. The River that Carries Me. 1995 Biography of Desire. 1999. Like Joy in Season, Like Sorrow. 2002 Perhaps the Heart is Constant After All.2012.

Much of her work explores issues of sexuality, identity, and the multifaceted lives of women in their role as mothers, daughters, and lovers. Her themes include the cathartic role of the outsider, the nature of desire, violence and political oppression.Above all she has won popular and critical acclaim for her portrayal of romantic and erotic relationships between women and her subversive and tender view of the mother/daughter dynamic.

Her poetry is taught on both the Irish Junior Certificate English course and on the British O Level English curriculum. 'FIRST LOVE' has been selected once more for the revised Junior Cycle.The same poem was included in the BBC Anthology 'A Hundred Favourite Poems of Childhood.' Her poetry 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.'

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

She is a Research Associate at Trinity College, Dublin where for eight years she was a writer in residence at the Centre for Gender and Women's Studies TCD during which time she conducted seminars on contemporary English literature and led a creative writing workshop. She has lived in the United States, England, France, Spain and Japan.

Her poetry and fiction has in the last year won widespread praise and critical attention in Italy where it has been translated and show-cased in the distinguished journal 'POESIA.' and in 'STUDI IRLANDESI.' Some of her poetry has also been set to music.

A new story 'Another Glorious Day.' was published in the Faber Book of Best Irish Stories.'ed. David Marcus.

Her fifth collection of poetry: 'Perhaps the Heart is Constant After All.' 'Salmon Poetry' was published last October 2012.

Her 'New and Selected Poetry' will appear in 2016 with Salmon Poetry.

She has just recently completed a collection of Novellas: 'Shame and Beauty.'

She lives in Co. Wicklow, Ireland.

Poetry

• Kindling (London, Onlywomen Press, 1989)
• Moving Into The Space Cleared by Our Mothers (Salmon Poetry, 1991)
• The River That Carries Me (Salmon Poetry, 1995)
• Like Joy In Season, Like Sorrow. (Salmon Poetry, 2001)
• Perhaps The heart Is Constant After All. (Salmon Poetry, 2012)

Books, essays and short stories

• A Noise from the Woodshed: Short Stories (London, Onlywomen Press, 1989)
• Scarlet O'Hara (in the anthology In and Out of Time) (London. Onlywomen Press, 1990)
• Biography of Desire (Dublin, Poolbeg 1997)
• A Glorious Day (The Faber Book Of Best New Irish Short Stories 2006–2007 By David Marcus)

'The Lift Home'(Virgins and Hyacinths, Ed. Caroline Walsh.1993.

'The Orphan' (In Sunshine or in Shadow) Ed. Mary Maher. 1999.

Staged dramatisations

• In the Pink (The Raving Beauties)
• Sunny Side Plucked(Dublin, Project Arts Centre)