John F. Deane (born 1943 on

Achill Island Achill Island (; ga, Acaill, Oileán Acla) in County Mayo is the largest of the Irish isles, and is situated off the west coast of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It has a population of 2,594. Its area is . Achill is attached to the mainland by ...

) 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 ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

and

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

. He founded ''Poetry Ireland'' and ''The Poetry Ireland Review'' in 1979. John F

Personal life

Deane was educated at the Jesuit-run boarding school

Mungret College Mungret College was a Jesuit apostolic school and a lay secondary school near Limerick, Ireland. Located on the western outskirts of the modern-day suburban town of Raheen, it was operational from 1882 until 1974 when it closed as a school f ...

, Limerick, and

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 collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland ...

studying English and French, he had been training to become a Spiritan priest, in Killshane, Tipperary and Holy Ghost College,

Kimmage Manor The Holy Ghost Missionary College, in Kimmage in Dublin, colloquially known as Kimmage Manor, is Holy Ghost Fathers(Spiritans) institution that has served as a Seminary training missionary priests and spawned two other colleges the ''Kimmage Mission ...

but became a teacher. Deane married Barbara Sheridan. Barbara was the daughter of music hall performer

Cecil Sheridan Cecil Sheridan (21 December 1910 – 4 January 1980) was an Irish comedian and actor who performed in variety shows and pantomimes in Ireland and Great Britain during a versatile career spanning over forty years. Early life Born at 31 Pearse Squ ...

, and they had two children. . Deane got married again in 1984 to Ursula Foran of Drumkeelanmore, Drumshanbo Co Leitrim, and they have one daughter, Mary, born in 1985.

Career

Deane published several collections of

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

and some fiction.John F. Deane
He won the O'Shaughnessy Award for Irish Poetry, the Marten Toonder Award for Literature and poetry prizes from

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

and

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

. Deane was elected Secretary-General of the European Academy of Poetry in 1996. Shortlisted for both the

T. S. Eliot Prize The T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry is a prize that was, for many years, awarded by the Poetry Book Society (UK) to "the best collection of new verse in English first published in the UK or the Republic of Ireland" in any particular year. The Priz ...

and the

Irish Times Poetry Now Award The Poetry Now Award is an annual literary prize presented for the best single volume of poetry by an Irish poet. The €5,000 award was first given in 2005 (reduced to €2,500 in 2013) and is presented during annual Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown ...

, he won residencies in

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

and

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. He is a member of

Aosdána Aosdána ( , ; from , 'people of the arts') is an Irish association of artists. It was created in 1981 on the initiative of a group of writers with support from the country's Arts Council. Membership, which is by invitation from current member ...

, the body established by the Arts Council to honour artists "whose work had made an outstanding contribution to the arts in Ireland". In 2007, the French Government honoured him by making him ''Chevalier, Ordre des Arts et des Lettres''.

Bibliography

Poetry

Collections

* * ''Road with Cypress and Star'', Dedalus, 1988 * ''The Stylized City: Collected and New Poetry'', Dedalus, 1991 * ''Walking on Water'', Dedalus Press, 1994 * ''Christ, with Urban Fox'', Daedalus Press, 1997 * ''Toccata and Fugue: New and Selected Poems'', Carcanet, 2000 * ''Manhandling the Deity'', Carcanet, 2003. * ''The Instruments of Art'', Carcanet, 2005 * ''A Little Book of Hours'', Carcanet, 2008. * ''Eye of the Hare'', Carcanet, 2011. * ''Snow Falling on Chestnut Hill'', New & Selected Poems, Carcanet 2012 * ''Semibreve'', Carcanet, 2015 * ''Dear Pilgrims,'' Carcanet, 2018 * ''Naming of the Bones'', Carcanet, 2021

List of poems

Novels

* ''In the Name of the Wolf,''Blackstaff Press, 1999 * ''Undertow,'' Blackstaff Press, 2002

Short stories

* ''The Coffin Master,'' Blackstaff Press, 2002 * "The Heather Fields and Other Stories", Blackstaff Press, 2007

References

External links

Official WebsiteInterview with John F. Deane
by Patrick O'Donnell as part of the O'Shaughnessy Poetry Award by the University of St. Thomas Center for Irish Studies, St. Paul, Minnesota (1998) {{DEFAULTSORT:Deane, John F. 1943 births Irish poets Living people Aosdána members People from County Mayo The London Magazine people Alumni of University College Dublin