Mary Dorcey

Mary Dorcey is a critically acclaimed Irish poet, short story writer and novelist. She won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 1990 for her short story collection A Noise from the Woodshed. Her poetry and fiction is researched and taught internationally at universities throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. The subject of countless academic critiques and theses, it has been anthologised in more than one hundred collections. She is a member of Aosdána, the Irish Academy of Writers and Artists and is a Research Associate at Trinity College where for many years she led seminars at the Centre for Gender and Women’s Studies. The first Irish woman in history to advocate for LGBT rights, she is a lifelong activist for gay and women’s rights. Founder member of ‘Irish Women United,’ ‘The Sexual Liberation Movement,’ and ‘Women for Radical Change.’ Her poetry is taught in schools at O-Level in Britain and on the Irish Junior Certificate. She has lived in England, the USA, France, Japan, Italy and Spain. She has published nine previous books: Kindling (Onlywomen Press, 1982); A Noise from the Woodshed (Onlywomen Press, 1987); Moving into the Space Cleared by our Mothers (Salmon Poetry, 1991); Scarlet O’Hara (Onlywomen Press, 1993); The River that Carries me (Salmon Poetry, 1995); Biography of Desire (Poolbeg, 1997); Like Joy in Season, like Sorrow (Salmon Poetry, 2001); Perhaps the Heart is Constant after All (Salmon Poetry, 2012); and To Air the Soul Throw All the Windows Wide: New & Selected Poems (Salmon Poetry, 2016). She is currently working on a collection of novellas. She lives in Wicklow, Ireland.