Seamus Deane is an Irish poet

Irish poetry

The history of Irish poetry includes the poetries of two languages, one in Irish and the other in English. The complex interplay between these two traditions, and between both of them and other poetries in English, has produced a body of work that is both rich in variety and difficult to...

, novelist

Irish literature

For a comparatively small island, Ireland has made a disproportionately large contribution to world literature. Irish literature encompasses the Irish and English languages.-The beginning of writing in Irish:...

, and critic.

Born in Derry

Derry

Derry or Londonderry is the second-biggest city in Northern Ireland and the fourth-biggest city on the island of Ireland. The name Derry is an anglicisation of the Irish name Doire or Doire Cholmcille meaning "oak-wood of Colmcille"...

, Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

, Deane was born into a Catholic nationalist

Irish nationalism

Irish nationalism manifests itself in political and social movements and in sentiment inspired by a love for Irish culture, language and history, and as a sense of pride in Ireland and in the Irish people...

 family. He attended St. Columb's College

St. Columb's College

St. Columb's College is a Roman Catholic boys' grammar school in Derry, Northern Ireland and, since 2008, a specialist school in Mathematics and Computing...

 in Derry, Queen's University Belfast (BA and MA) and Pembroke College, Cambridge

Pembroke College, Cambridge

Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college has over seven hundred students and fellows, and is the third oldest college of the university. Physically, it is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from almost every century since its...

 University (PhD). At St. Columb's he became friends with fellow-student Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer. He lives in Dublin. Heaney has received the Nobel Prize in Literature , the Golden Wreath of Poetry , T. S. Eliot Prize and two Whitbread prizes...

.

Works

Deane's first novel, Reading in the Dark

Reading in the Dark

Reading in the Dark is a novel written by Seamus Deane in 1996. The novel is set in Derry, Northern Ireland and spans more than twenty-five years .-Plot introduction:...

(published in 1996), was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won The Irish Times

The Irish Times

The Irish Times is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Kevin O'Sullivan who succeeded Geraldine Kennedy in 2011; the deputy editor is Paul O'Neill. The Irish Times is considered to be Ireland's newspaper of record, and is published every day except Sundays...

International Fiction Prize and The Irish Literature Prize in 1997. He is also the general editor of The Field Day Anthology Of Irish Writing.

Deane's nonfiction works include:

• Celtic Revivals: Essays in Modern Irish Literature 1880-1980 (1985)
• A Short History Of Irish Literature (1986)
• The French Enlightenment And Revolution In England 1789-1832, Harvard University Press
  Harvard University Press
  Harvard University Press is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. In 2005, it published 220 new titles. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. Its current director is William P...
  
  , (1988)
• Strange Country : Modernity and Nationhood in Irish Writing since 1790 (1997)
• Foreign Affections: Essays On Edmund Burke (2005)

His poetry includes:

• Gradual Wars (1972)
• Rumours (1977)
• History Lessons (1983)

Seamus Deane is currently the Keough Professor of Irish Studies at the University of Notre Dame

University of Notre Dame

The University of Notre Dame du Lac is a Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated community north of the city of South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States...

, Indiana

Indiana

Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...

, and a co-editor of Field Day Review, an annual Irish literary journal: http://fielddaybooks.com. Until 1993, we was Professor of Modern English and American Literature at University College Dublin

University College Dublin

University College Dublin ) - formally known as University College Dublin - National University of Ireland, Dublin is the Republic of Ireland's largest, and Ireland's second largest, university, with over 1,300 faculty and 17,000 students...

. In the late 70s and 80s, he taught American college juniors part-time at the School of Irish Studies in the Ballsbridge section of Dublin.

External Links

• Faculty directory at Notre Dame