Dennis O'Driscoll

Dennis O'Driscoll (1 January 1954 – 24 December 2012) was an Irish poet, essayist, critic and editor. Regarded as one of the best European poets of his time, Eileen Battersby considered him "the lyric equivalent of William Trevor" and a better poet "by far" than Raymond Carver. Gerard Smyth regarded him as "one of poetry's true champions and certainly its most prodigious archivist. His book on Seamus Heaney is regarded as the definitive biography of the Nobel laureate. he was employed for over thirty years full-time. He lived in Naas, County Kildare, until his sudden death. He was rushed to hospital after becoming ill but quickly succumbed to his fate. The arts world was shocked by his sudden demise.

President Michael D. Higgins noted that O'Driscoll was "held in the highest regard not only by all those associated with Irish and European poetry". Joe Duffy, with whom O'Driscoll had appeared on air on the very week of his death, called O'Driscoll a "generous, caring and witty man". Fellow writer Belinda McKeon said he was "a scholar, a gentleman, a character, a friend". English critic David Morley described him as a "fine poet and great critic".

Literary activities

Prior to the publication of his own poems, O'Driscoll published widely in journals and other print publications as both an essayist and poetry reviewer, for which he was very widely known. The Times Literary Supplement called him "one of Ireland's most respected critics of poetry." During this time he contributed upwards of two-hundred essays and reviews to various publications. O'Driscoll was published in Poetry, The London Magazine, Harvard Review, The Southern Review, Narrative Magazine, and Poetry Review, and was invited to give readings of his work in the Poetry Room in Harvard University, the Poetry International in London as well as the Hay-on-Wye and Cheltenham festivals of literature.

O'Driscoll wrote nine books of poetry, three chapbooks, and two collections of essays and reviews. The majority of his works were characterised by the use of economic language and the recurring motifs of mortality and the fragility of everyday life. As he aged, O'Driscoll's works became more fluid and thoughtful as well as more frequent, and, according to some sources, like Alan Brownjohn of The Sunday Times for instance, even though he is younger than some of the poetic greats, "at best he is already their equal." Originally published as a pamphlet, his sonnet poem "The Bottom Line" is considered his hallmark work.

In 1987, he temporarily became a writer-in-residence at the National University of Ireland. He has also served as editor of Poetry Ireland Review, as well as of two textbook anthologies entitled The Bloodaxe Book of Poetry, and Quote Poet Unquote.

O'Driscoll published a collection of literary criticism entitled Troubled Thoughts, Majestic Dreams, which contains a selection of his essays and reviews. A new collection of his essays, The Outnumbered Poet from Gallery Press was published in 2013. Stepping Stones: Interviews with Seamus Heaney, an acclaimed 500-page volume of his interviews with 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature recipient, Seamus Heaney, was published in 2008. He served as a judge for the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2009. He was the editor of A Michael Hamburger Reader, published by Anvil Press in 2013.

List of works

Poetry collections Kist (Dolmen Press, 1982) Hidden Extras (Anvil Press Poetry, London/Dedalus Press, Dublin, 1987) Long Story Short (Anvil Press Poetry/Dedalus Press, 1993) Quality Time (Anvil Press Poetry, 1997) Weather Permitting (Anvil Press Poetry, 1999), which was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and shortlisted for the Irish Times Poetry Prize 2001 Exemplary Damages (Anvil Press Poetry, 2002) New and Selected Poems (Anvil Press Poetry, 2004) was a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation Reality Check (Anvil Press Poetry, 2007/ Copper Canyon Press, US, 2008), was shortlisted for the Irish Times/Poetry Now Prize Dear Life (Anvil Press Poetry, 2012/ Copper Canyon Press, US, 2013). Update (Copper Canyon Press, US, 2015)

Poetry chapbooks

The Bottom Line (Dedalus Editions, 1994) 50 O'Clock (Happy Dragons' Press, UK, 2005) All the Living (Traffic Street Press, Minnesota, 2008).

Prose

Troubled Thoughts, Majestic Dreams: Selected Prose Writings (Gallery Press, 2001). The Bloodaxe Book of Poetry Quotations (Bloodaxe Books, 2006). Quote Poet Unquote: Contemporary Quotations on Poets and Poetry (Copper Canyon Press, US, 2008). Stepping Stones: Interviews with Seamus Heaney (Faber and Faber, UK, 2008). The Outnumbered Poet: Critical and Autobiographical Essays (Gallery Press, 2013).

Awards and honours

Lannan Literary Award E. M. Forster Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters O'Shaughnessy Award for Poetry from the Center of Irish Studies in Minnesota Poetry Book Society Special Commendation for New and Selected Poems Shortlisted for The Irish Times Poetry Now Award 2008 for Reality Check Winner of The Irish Times Poetry Now Award 2013 for Dear Life (posthumous) Argosy Irish Non-Fiction Book of the Year Award Honorary doctorate in literature by University College, Dublin