Biography

Rosemary Canavan was born in Scotland, brought up in the North of Ireland, and now lives in Co. Cork.

Her second collection of poetry, Trucker’s Moll, was published this year by Salmon Poetry in Galway. Her first collection, The Island, was shortlisted for the Vincent Buckley Poetry Prize (University of Melbourne, Australia. Other publications include children’s books, translations of French short stories and anthologies.

In 2001 she was Writer in Residence in Kerry, and from 2006 – 7 she was Poetry Editor for Southword. She has read at a number of festivals including the Cheltenham Literary Festival, Listowel Writers’ Week and Cuirt Literary Festival, Galway.

She has been awarded a Hawthornden Fellowship (2007), a bursary in Literature from the Arts Council of Ireland (2000) and a residency for a project with asylum seekers for Cork 2005 European City of Culture.

She has given workshops in Creative Writing to adults and children, and also worked as a teacher in varied locations including Belfast, Spike Island and Cork Prisons. Her digital artwork has been exhibited at the Droichead Arts Centre and the Boole Library in University College, Cork.

Publications

Poetry : Trucker’s Moll, Salmon Poetry, Galway 2009
The Island, Story Line Press, U.S.A. 1994

Children’s books : Caitríona agus an tÉinín Óir (Caitriona and the Golden bird),
An Gúm, Dublin, 1999
Lios Chaitríona (Caitriona’s Fairy Fort), Dublin, 1991

Anthologies: A Safe Harbour (Collection of writing by asylum seekers, 2005)
Breacadh, An Anthology of Kerry Writing, 2002.

She has also published work in: Poetry Ireland Review, The Shop, Southword, Cork Literary Review, The Kinsale Anthology, The White Page/An Bhileog Bhán, Salmon Press, Or Volge L’Anno/At the Year’s Turning, Trinity College Dublin, and Dedalus Press, Volume (Crawford Municipal Art Gallery).