Maura Dooley (born 18 May 1957) is a British poet and writer. She has published five collections of poetry and edited several anthologies. She is the winner of the Eric Gregory Award in 1987 and the Cholmondeley Award in 2016, and was shortlisted for the Forward Poetry Prize (single poem) in 1997 and again in 2015. Her poetry collections ''Life Under Water'' (2008) and ''Kissing A Bone'' (1996) were shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize.

Biography

Maura Dooley was born on 18 May 1957 in

Truro Truro (; kw, Truru) is a cathedral city and civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its population was 18,766 in the 2011 census. People of Truro ...

to Irish parents and grew up in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

. She obtained a BA (Hons) from the University of York in 1978 and attended the

University of Bristol , mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'') , established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter , type ...

from 1980 to 1981. She was the director of the writing centre at the

Arvon Foundation The Arvon Foundation is a charitable organisation in the United Kingdom that promotes creative writing. Arvon is one of Arts Council England's National Portfolio Organisations. Andrew Kidd is the Chief Executive Officer, Patricia Cumper is Cha ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...

from 1982 to 1987. From 1987 to 1993, Dooley served as programme director of literature for the

South Bank Centre Southbank Centre is a complex of artistic venues in London, England, on the South Bank of the River Thames (between Hungerford Bridge and Waterloo Bridge). It comprises three main performance venues (the Royal Festival Hall including the Nat ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. In the 1990s she helped develop family films for

Jim Henson Productions The Jim Henson Company (formerly known as Muppets, Inc., Henson Associates, Inc., and Jim Henson Productions, Inc.; commonly referred to as Henson) is an American entertainment company located in Los Angeles, California. The company is known fo ...

and developed a theatre workshop for Performing Arts Labs. Dooley is currently Professor of Creative Writing at

Goldsmiths, University of London Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wo ...

. Dooley has been a judge for 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 ...

, the

National Poetry Competition The National Poetry Competition is an annual poetry prize established in 1978 in the United Kingdom. It is run by the UK-based Poetry Society and accepts entries from all over the world, with over 10,000 poems being submitted to the competition ...

, the Forward Prize and the London Arts New London Writers Awards.

Poetry collections

*''The Silvering'' (2016) *''Life under Water'' (2008) *''Sound Barrier '' (2002) *''Kissing a Bone'' (1996) *''Explaining Magnetism'' (1991)

Other publications

* * * *Ghahreman, Azita. (2018) ''Negative of a Group Photograph'' (Dooley, Maura; Shakerifar, Elhum, trans.) The Poetry Translation Centre / Bloodaxe Books.

Awards

* 1987 Eric Gregory Award * 2016 Cholmondeley Award

References

External links

Maura Dooley
on the

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lan ...

's website.
Maura Dooley
on

Poetry International Web Poetry International Web is an international webzine and a poetry archive put together by a collective body of editors around the world and centrally edited in Rotterdam. It was originally launched in 2002. The site presents poetry from many coun ...

.
Poem of the Week: In a dream she meets him again by Maura Dooley
Article in

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

. Published 5 September 2016. {{DEFAULTSORT:Dooley, Maura 1957 births Living people 21st-century British poets 21st-century Irish poets 21st-century British women writers Alumni of the University of York Alumni of the University of Bristol Irish women poets People from Truro