Denyse Woods (born 1958) is an
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
writer.
Early life
Denyse Woods was born in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
, in 1958, daughter of
Gerard Woods, Irish
Consul-General
A consul is an official representative of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, as well as to facilitate trade and friendship between the people ...
in Boston and his wife Finola Devlin. Her father was to be Ambassador to Australia, Belgium and the
Holy See
The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of Rome ...
. Her uncle was the poet and diplomat
Denis Devlin
Denis Devlin (15 April 1908 – 21 August 1959) was, along with Samuel Beckett, Thomas MacGreevy and Brian Coffey, one of the generation of Irish modernist poets to emerge at the end of the 1920s. He was also a career diplomat.
Early life and ...
. Her mother died while her father was posted to Rome and Woods was sent to a boarding school in
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
. After school Woods initially did a secretarial course. A later job in Iraq led to her to study Arabic and English at
University College, Dublin
University College Dublin (commonly referred to as UCD) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath) is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 33,284 student ...
. Her father died five years after her mother. Woods was left with two older siblings, a brother Henry and a sister Anne.
Cork
Both with her family growing up and later after college, Woods travelled extensively before finally moving to live in Cork with her husband and their two daughters, where she was the director for the
West Cork Literary Festival for four years. She has also been the resident tutor for the Country House Writers' Weekend and writer-in-residence with Cork County Library.
Fiction prizes
Denyse Woods won the Florida Keys Flash Fiction Contest in 2016. She also won
The Irish Times
''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...
short-story award in 2010.
Woods also writes under the name Denyse Devlin.
Bibliography
*''Overnight to Innsbruck'' (Lilliput Press, 2002)
*''The Catalpa Tree'' (Penguin Ireland, 2004)
*''Like Nowhere Else'' (Penguin Ireland, 2005)
*''Hopscotch'' (Penguin Ireland, 2006)
*''If Not Now'' (Penguin Ireland, 2008)
*''Of Sea and Sand'' (2018)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Woods, Denyse
Irish women writers
1958 births
Alumni of University College Dublin
Living people