Desmond Egan

Desmond Egan (born 15 July 1936 in Athlone, County Westmeath) is an Irish poet, publisher, and festival organiser. He has published over 20 collections of poetry as well as some translations of Greek plays. His own work has been translated into Albanian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Polish and Russian. He founded The Goldsmith Press (1972), edited the quarterly magazine for the arts Era (1974-1984), and starting in 1987 he has served as artistic director of the Gerard Manley Hopkins International Festival each July in Kildare, Ireland.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]

Life

Egan was born in Athlone in the Irish midlands. His parents were Thomas Egan and national school teacher Kathleen Garland. He attended St Finian's College in Mullingar, then university at St Patrick's College, Maynooth (now Maynooth University), where he obtained his BA (1962), and University College Dublin (MA 1965). He returned to his old school St Finian’s (1965-1971) to teach English and Greek, then taught at Newbridge College, County Kildare, and in time settled in Newbridge to focus on writing as a career. He is married to the writer Vivienne Abbot.[8] They have two daughters. Egan is fluent in Irish and French.

Works
  • 1972. Midland, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press. With drawings by Brian Bourke
  • 1972. Poiemata, Readings in Poetry and Prose for Young People, chosen by Egan, Rice. Dublin: Fallons
  • 1973 Choice, An anthology of Irish poetry selected by the poets themselves. Edited by Desmond Egan and Michael Hartnett, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press
  • 1974 Leaves, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press. With drawings by Charles Cullen
  • 1976 Siege, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press
  • 1978 Woodcutter, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press.
  • 1980 Athlone?, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press. With photographs by Fergus Bourke
  • 1983 Seeing Double, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press. Illusrations by Alex Sadkowsky.
  • 1983 Collected Poems, Orono, Maine, National Poetry Foundation. Winner of The National Poetry Foundation Award
  • 1989 A Song for my Father, Newbridge, Ireland: The Kavanagh Press
  • 1990 The Death of Metaphor, essays, Gerrard's Cross, England: Colin Smythe
  • 1991 Philoctetes, translation of Sophocles. Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press
  • 1992 Peninsula, Poems of the Dingle Peninsula. Newbridge, Ireland: The Kavanagh Press
  • 1992 Snapdragon, Little Rock, Arkansas. Milestone Press. With drawings by Brian Bourke
  • 1992 Medea, translation of Euripides. Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press
  • 1992 Selected Poems, Omaha, Nebraska: Creighton University Press. Selected and with Introduction by Hugh Kenner
  • 1994 Poems for Eimear, Limited Edition. Little Rock, Arkansas. Milestone Press
  • 1994 In the Holocaust of Autumn, - a sequence in eight parts with an Epilogue. Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press
  • 1995 Elegies, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press
  • 1997 Famine, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press
  • 1999 Prelude: A Sequence of Poems for Hans Pålsson Pianist. Limited ed., Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press
  • 2000 Music, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press
  • 2001 The Hill of Allen, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press
  • 2005 The Outdoor Light, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press
  • 2009 The Bronze Horseman, essays, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press
  • 2012 Hopkins in Kildare, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press
  • 2015 Epic, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press
  • 2017 Hopeful Hopkins, essays, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press
  • 2019 how lonely the soul, dual language, Swedish translation by Lena Köster, Malmö, Sweden: Ekström & Garay

Awards
  • 1983: winner of Muir Poetry Award 1983; American Society Poetry Award
  • 1983: National Poetry Foundation of USA Award for Collected Poems
  • 1987: Chicago Haymarket Literary Award
  • 1996: honorary D.Litt. from Washburn University
  • 1998: Bologna Literary Award
  • 2004: Literature of Macedonia Award
  • 2005: Prix de Livre Insulaire 2005, Salon International de Livre Insulaire île d’Oeussant, Bretagne
  • 2015: iBAM (Chicago) Award for Literature

Further reading
  • Arkins, Brian, Desmond Egan: A Critical Study Milestone Press, Little Rock, 1992.
  • Kenner, Hugh, ed., Desmond Egan: The Poet and His Work. Northern Lights, 1990.
  • Kunio Shimane,The Language of Now: Three Poems of Desmond Egan Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, Vol. 91, No. 364 (Winter, 2002), pp. 390-398.
  • Interview with Anthony Roche: Irish Literary Supplement, Volume 8, Number 2, 1 September 1989.

References
  1. Poet Desmond Egan brings Irish history to life by Whitney Clum, Washburn Review, 9 March 2018
  2. Desmond Egan Author Database: Literature Ireland
  3. Desmond Egan Poet Artistic Director The Gerard Manley Hopkins Society Ltd, Ireland, 2018
  4. Desmond Egan: Life Works Criticism Commentary References Quotations Notes ricorso.net
  5. Seeing Double and Feeling Far : The Poetry of Desmond Egan Review by Christine Pagnoulle, Etudes irlandaises, 1989
  6. Irish Poet Desmond Egan to Visit UNO University of Nebraska Omaha, 12 March 2017
  7. Hopkins International Festival 2019
  8. id=JhXmEYWHDHYC&pg=PA99&lpg=PA99&dq=Vivienne+Abbott+writer&source=bl&ots=aEGOdnbx7U&sig=ACfU3U0dAWTC_k-Ved8YlYsrkeW-UwcRYQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjy0ty8tofhAhV6VBUIHVgrAxUQ6AEwA3oECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=Vivienne%20Abbott%20writer&f=false International Who's Who in Poetry 2004 By Europa Publications: Egan, Desmond
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