Mary O'Donnell

Mary O'Donnell (born 1954) is an Irish novelist and poet, journalist, broadcaster and teacher.

Biography O'Donnell was born in County Monaghan and was raised close to the border with Northern Ireland. Her Kilkenny-born father held a B. Ag from University College Cork, and transferred to Monaghan to become Town of Monaghan Co-op's first Catholic General Manager in 1947. Her Monaghan-born mother Maureen (née Macklin) was an accomplished singer and actor on the amateur circuit. She has one sistet, Margaret (b. 1960). O'Donnell was educated at St. Louis Secondary School, Monaghan and attended college at St. Patrick's College, Maynooth(NUI), now Maynooth University. There she gained a degree in German and philosophy and an MA in German studies, followed by a First Class Hons Higher Diploma in education, which she used to become a language and drama teacher. In 2019 she was conferred with a PhD in Creative Writing from UCC. She is married to Martin Nugent, former Assistant Headmaster of Clongowes Wood College. They have one daughter, Anna O'Donnell Nugent. They live in County Kildare.

O'Donnell has taught creative writing at Maynooth University, was a mentor on the Carlow University, Pittsburgh MFA in Creative Writing programme for eleven years, and also contributed to the faculty of the University of Iowa's summer writing programme at Trinity College, Dublin for three years. She also taught Poetry and Fiction for three years on Galway University's MA in Creative Writing. She is a former member of the Irish Writers' Union, a former Board Member of the Irish Writers Centre, a member of Aosdána and served for three years on Maynooth University's Governing Authority, representing arts and culture.

O'Donnell has been a judge for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the Hennessy Literary Award, the Strokestown International Poetry Competition, Poetry Now and the Irish Times/Mountains to Sea Poetry Prize.

She is represented by the Marianne Gunne O'Connor Literary Agency.

Awards Sunday Tribune Best New Irish Novel in 1992, The William Allingham Award. The Listowel Writers’ Week Short Story Prize. Hennessy Literary Award shortlisting, 1989. Prize-winner in the V.S. Pritchett Short Story Competition (UK), 2000. Frank O'Connor International Short Story Prize shortlisting, 2008 The FISH International Short Story Award, 2011 Runner up, FISH International Poetry Competition, 2023. Runner-up, Cardiff International Poetry Competition, 2011 Winner of the Irodälmi Jelen translation prize. President's Alumni Award at NUI Maynooth 2011. Irish Times Literature Awards – nominated twice.