David Murphy (Irish writer)

Last updated

David Murphy is an Irish writer, born in Cork in 1953.

Contents

Career

He graduated from UCC (1974) with a degree in Irish, Welsh & European History. In 1976, after a couple of years travelling and working odd jobs, he moved to the Dublin area to begin a teaching career in which he remained until 2003 when he took early retirement to concentrate on writing full time. Since then he has had six titles published. His most recent book is a debut poetry collection, Drowning in the Desert, published by Limerick's Revival Press in 2020. Walking on Ripples – his first book to feature non-fiction – was published by Dublin's Liffey Press in 2014. Previous work includes a contemporary fantasy novella Bird of Prey (2011), Arkon Chronicles (also a novella, 2003) and the well received novel Longevity City (2005), each of which was published in the USA.

His award-winning short fiction has been published and translated worldwide; over one hundred appearances including magazines and anthologies, two chapbooks (1995 and 1998) and a short story collection brought out in Dublin in 2004 and since reprinted. The title story of that collection, Lost Notes, won the inaugural Maurice Walsh Award for short stories. He has also been short-listed for the Molly Keane and Aisling Gheal awards. His poetry is also award-winning, for instance Dublin’s Red Line Book Festival 2018.

He has given readings of his own work, as well as talks (on the history of ‘imaginative’ fiction in the Irish tradition) at bookshops, arts festivals and other events including the Frank O’Connor Festival in Cork, Limerick’s ‘On the Nail’, Waterford Writers’ Weekend, Chapter’s Lunchtime Series, West Cork Literary Festival, Irish Writers’ Centre, Imagine, Shorelines, Culture Night, Poetry Day and various other arts & literature events in Ireland (Ballymaloe, Boyle, Greystones, Trim, Strokestown, Mountshannon) and abroad (Bradford, Copenhagen, Montreal).

He has been interviewed in print, online, and on RTE, Lyric FM, WLR, LMFM as well as Kerry and Limerick radio. David Murphy’s books have received many favourable reviews, all of which are available online on the website to which he also contributes various book and film reviews (see official website below). A founder editor of Albedo One Magazine and co-ordinator of the Aeon Award for short stories, though he has stepped down from those positions to concentrate on writing. He has lived in North County Dublin for over forty years, though in recent times he can often be found in County Waterford.

Quotes

"Lost Notes" is a story that approaches greatness. Attempts at description can only diminish it. There are certain passages in great music that, whenever I hear them, I have only to close my eyes to be released from corporeality. "Lost Notes" had the same effect on me." - Dr David Marcus

"It's a rare talent who can show a glimpse of what Ireland is and could become. David Murphy doesn't believe in glimpses. He shows it all, every subtle distinction, every smell, every shade. You will remember this book." - Roelof Goudriaan (on the stories in LOST NOTES).

"One of the most exciting writers exploring the boundaries of the modern short story in Ireland today." - Robert Neilson

The Irish Times described Walking on Ripples as follows: "The latest entry in the well-stocked category of fishing books in the great literary or romantic tradition - reflective, speculative, full of allegory, memory and metaphor" and "Walking on Ripples is that rare creature: a fiction-memoir, a daring blend of fact and award-winning invention, a hybrid rarely seen and seldom caught." [1]

Related Research Articles

Frank OConnor Irish writer

Frank O'Connor was an Irish writer of over 150 works, best known for his short stories and memoirs. The Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award is named in his honour.

Michael Hartnett

Michael Hartnett was an Irish poet who wrote in both English and Irish. He was one of the most significant voices in late 20th-century Irish writing and has been called "Munster's de facto poet laureate".

Events from the year 1984 in Ireland.

Events from the year 1982 in Ireland.

William "Bill" Wall is an Irish novelist, poet and short story writer.

Events from the year 2005 in Ireland.

Emma Donoghue Irish novelist, playwright, short-story writer and historian

Emma Donoghue is an Irish-Canadian playwright, literary historian, novelist, and screenwriter. Her 2010 novel Room was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize and an international best-seller. Donoghue's 1995 novel Hood won the Stonewall Book Award and Slammerkin (2000) won the Ferro-Grumley Award for Lesbian Fiction. She is a 2011 recipient of the Alex Awards. Room was adapted by Donoghue into a film of the same name. For this, she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Desmond Hogan is an Irish writer. Awarded the 1977 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and 1980 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, his oeuvre comprises novels, plays, short stories and travel writing.

"Life Holds Its Breath." her latest collection was published this year, 2022 by Salmon Poetry. She was awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature for her first collection of stories "A Noise from the Woodshed.' She has won critical acclaim internationally for her portrayal of romantic and erotic relationships between women and for her subversive and tender exploration of the mother/daughter dynamic. Her collection"New and Selected Poems."was published by Salmon Poetry in 2017.

Thomas McCarthy is an Irish poet, novelist, and critic, born in Cappoquin, County Waterford, Ireland. He attended University College Cork where he was part of a resurgence of literary activity under the inspiration of John Montague. Among McCarthy's contemporaries, described by Thomas Dillon Redshaw as "that remarkable generation", were the writers and poets Theo Dorgan, Sean Dunne, Greg Delanty, Maurice Riordan and William Wall. McCarthy edited, at various times, The Cork Review and Poetry Ireland Review. He has published seven collections of poetry with Anvil Press Poetry, London, including The Sorrow Garden, The Lost Province, Mr Dineen's Careful Parade, The Last Geraldine Officer, and Merchant Prince. The main themes of his poetry are Southern Irish politics, love and memory. He is also the author of two novels; Without Power and Asya and Christine. He is married with two children and lives in Cork City where he works in the City Libraries. He won the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award in 1977. His monograph "Rising from the Ashes" tells the story of the burning of the Carnegie Free Library in Cork City by the Black and Tans in 1920 and the subsequent efforts to rebuild the collection with the help of donors from all over the world.

John Montague was an Irish poet. Born in America, he was raised in Ireland. He published a number of volumes of poetry, two collections of short stories and two volumes of memoir. He was one of the best known Irish contemporary poets. In 1998 he became the first occupant of the Ireland Chair of Poetry. In 2010, he was made a Chevalier de la Legion d'honneur, France's highest civil award.

The 2001 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship was the 114th staging of Ireland's premier hurling knock-out competition. Tipperary won the championship, beating Galway 2-18 to 2-15 in the final at Croke Park, Dublin.

Events from the year 2007 in Ireland.

Anatoly Kudryavitsky Russian/Irish novelist, poet, literary translator and magazine editor

Anatoly Kudryavitsky is a Russian-Irish novelist, poet, editor and literary translator.

The All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship 2008 was the 122nd since its establishment by the Gaelic Athletic Association in 1887. The first matches of the season were played on 25 May 2008, and the championship ended on 7 September 2008. Kilkenny went into the 2008 championship as defending champions, having won their thirtieth All-Ireland title the previous year.

Gerry Murphy is an Irish poet.

Kevin Barry is an Irish writer. He is the author of three collections of short stories and three novels. City of Bohane was the winner of the 2013 International Dublin Literary Award. Beatlebone won the 2015 Goldsmiths Prize and is one of seven books by Irish authors nominated for the 2017 International Dublin Literary Award, the world's most valuable annual literary fiction prize for books published in English. His 2019 novel Night Boat to Tangier was longlisted for the 2019 Booker Prize. Barry is also an editor of Winter Papers, an arts and culture annual.

The Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award is an Irish poetry award for a collection of poems by an author who has not previously been published in collected form. It is confined to poets born on the island of Ireland, or who have Irish nationality, or are long-term residents of Ireland. It is based on an open competition whose closing date is in July each year. The award was founded by the Patrick Kavanagh Society in 1971 to commemorate the poet.

John W. Sexton

John William Sexton is an Irish poet, short-story writer, radio script-writer and children's novelist. He also writes under the pseudonyms of Sex W. Johnston and Jack Brae Curtingstall.

Máighréad Medbh is an Irish writer and poet.

References