Sophia Hillan (c. 1950), is a writer, critic and academic from
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
.
Life
From the
Falls Road, Belfast
The Falls Road () is the main road through West Belfast, Northern Ireland, running from Divis Street in Belfast City Centre to Andersonstown in the suburbs. The name has been synonymous for at least a century and a half with the Catholic comm ...
, Sophia Hillan was born c 1950 and attended St Dominic's Grammar School. Hillan graduated in 1972 with a Bachelor of Arts in English from
Queen's University Belfast
, mottoeng = For so much, what shall we give back?
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, followed by a doctorate.
Hillan studied under
Seamus Heaney
Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
. She was shortlisted for the Hennessy Award in 1980 and was awarded prizes by both
Sam Hanna Bell
Sam Hanna Bell (16 October 1909 – 9 February 1990) was a Scottish-born Northern Irish novelist, short story writer, playwright, and broadcaster.
Bell was born in Glasgow to Ulster Scots parents. Following the sudden death of his father in ...
and David Marcus.
Hillan moved back to Northern Ireland in 1983. She then began a more academic career and put her fiction writing on hold for several years. Hillan was the associate director of the Institute of Irish Studies in Queen's University, Belfast from 1993 to 2003. She was director of the International Summer School in Irish Studies.
Hillan has won awards for her short stories and they have been featured on BBC. She has written fiction and edited the fiction of others as well as written about them, particularly
Michael McLaverty
Michael McLaverty (5 July 1904 – 22 March 1992) was an Irish writer of novels and short stories.
Bibliography
* In Quiet Places - The Uncollected Stories, Letters and Critical Prose of Micheal McLaverty, (1989)
* The silken twine: a study of the works of Michael McLaverty, (1992)
* Collected short stories: Michael McLaverty, (2002)
* May, Lou and Cass: Jane Austen’s Nieces in Ireland, (2011)
* The Friday Tree, (2014)
* The Way We Danced, (2016)
* The Cocktail Hour, (2018)