Mary O'Donnell is an award-winning poet, short story writer and novelist who has published eleven books. Her first novel ‘The Light-Makers’ was named the Sunday Tribune’s Best New Irish Novel in 1992. Since then she has published the novels ‘Virgin and the Boy’ and ‘The Elysium Testament’ (Trident Press UK, 1999).
She has also published six collections of poetry, including ‘The Place of Miracles’, (new and selected poems, New Island Books 2006) and last year ‘The Ark Builders’ was published by Arc Publications UK.
Her short story collection, ‘Storm Over Belfast’ was published in May 2008 and was one of the Irish collections selected for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Competition long-list.
Her work in broadcasting for RTE radio includes several series of poetry programmes, including ‘Along the Backwater’, ‘The Darkness Echoing’ and the poetry-in-translation programme ‘Crossing the Lines’.
A former drama critic with The Sunday Tribune, she is now a poetry mentor on the faculty of Carlow University Pittsburgh’s MFA in Creative Writing, and also teaches poetry at NUI Maynooth. She has served on the jury of the Dublin Impac International Book Award 2006 and the Hennessy Literary Awards.
Member of Aosdana since 2001. For more information see www.maryodonnell.com