Doireann Ní Ghríofa

Biography

She was born in Galway in 1981, but grew up in County Clare. She now lives in Cork. She holds an MA in Modern Irish Literature (UCC).

Ní Ghríofa has published widely in literary magazines in Ireland and abroad, such as Poetry, The Irish Times, Irish Examiner, Prairie Schooner, The Stinging Fly, Southword and Feasta. In 2012 her poem "Fáinleoga" won the Wigtown Award for poetry written in Gaelic (Scotland).

She has received two literature bursaries from the Arts Council of Ireland (2011 and 2013).

Ní Ghríofa was selected for the prestigious Ireland Chair of Poetry Bursary Award 2014 - 2015.

In 2016 her book Clasp was shortlisted for The Irish Times Poetry Now Award, the national poetry prize of Ireland and was awarded the Michael Hartnett Award.

She was awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2016.

Critical response

Of Ní Ghríofa's book Clasp, Maya Catherine Popa in Poetry wrote: "The poems excel in their consideration of motherhood, particularly its paradoxical losses and gains, separation and unity… In Ní Ghríofa’s English debut, what seem to be long-considered obsessions are explored with tenderness and unflinching curiosity. The collection’s section titles, “Clasp,” “Cleave,” “Clench,” suggest the muscularity of attachment to the past, place, and the body that drives the poetic impulse."

According to Clíona Ní Riordáin of Southword, "The woman’s body is central to the collection, highlighted, visible, unconquered. Forgotten bones are reclaimed, gendered territory is staked out; it is clear that Ní Ghríofa’s has a voice which will not be silenced… In Clasp Ní Ghríofa has signalled that she is a poetic force to be reckoned with.”