Dermot Healy

Born in Finea, Co. Westmeath in 1947. His novels include Fighting with Shadows (1984), A Goat’s Song (1994) and Sudden (1999), and his short stories are collected as Banished Misfortune (1982). His autobiography is The Bend for Home (1996), and his plays include Here and There and Going to America (1985), The Long Swim (1988), On Broken Wings (1992), Last Nights of Fun (1994), Boxes (1998), Mister Staines (1999), Metagama (2005) and A night at the Disco (to be published in 2006). His play, Women to the Left, Men to the Right, is distilled from the oral tradition of older generations living in several border counties; it appeared at the Abbey Theatre in 2001 and was broadcast on RTÉ radio in 2002. He also wrote the screenplay for Our Boys, a film by Cathal Black. His poetry collections include The Ballyconnel Colours (1993), What the Hammer (1998) and The Reed Bed (2001). Other work includes After the Off, a photgraphic book, (1999). He lives in Co. Sligo, where he founded and has edited the literary journals The Drumlin and Force 10.