Éilís Ní Dhuibhne facts for kids

Éilís Ní Dhuibhne (pronounced "AY-lish nee GIV-nuh") is a well-known Irish writer. She was born on February 22, 1954. She writes novels, short stories, and plays. She writes in both the Irish and English languages. Sometimes, she uses the names Eilis Almquist or Elizabeth O'Hara. Her books have won many awards, and she was even shortlisted for the important Orange Prize for Fiction. She also received the Irish PEN Award.

About Éilís Ní Dhuibhne

Éilís Ní Dhuibhne was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1954. She went to University College Dublin (UCD). There, she studied English and also Folklore. Folklore is the study of traditional stories, customs, and beliefs of a community. She earned a PhD in Folklore in 1982.

While studying, she spent time in Denmark at the Folklore Institute. She learned a lot there. She said that in Denmark, she "discovered feminism." This means she learned more about equal rights for women.

Éilís has worked in different interesting places. She worked at UCD in the Irish Folklore Department. For many years, she was a curator at the National Library of Ireland. A curator helps look after and organize collections of books and items.

She also teaches people how to write creatively. She has been a Writer Fellow at Trinity College Dublin. Currently, she is a Writer Fellow at UCD. This means she helps students with their writing.

Since 2004, she has been a member of Aosdána. This is a special group that honors Irish artists. She is also an ambassador for the Irish Writers' Centre. She is the President of the Folklore of Ireland Society. In 2020, she was a visiting scholar at Boston College in the USA.

Éilís Ní Dhuibhne was married to Bo Almqvist, who was a Swedish folklorist. They were married for 30 years. Sadly, he passed away in 2013. She wrote a book called Twelve Thousand Days: A Memoir of Love and Loss. This book is about their time together. The title refers to the number of days they were married. She has two children named Ragnar and Olaf.

Awards and Honors

Éilís Ní Dhuibhne has won many awards for her writing. Here are some of them:

• 1985 Listowel Poetry Award
• Oireachtas Awards for a play and novels
• Butler Prose Award (from an American Irish Studies group)
• Bisto Merit Awards for her books The Hiring Fair and Hurlamaboc
• Bisto Book of the Year Award for Blaeberry Sunday
• 1986 Arts Council Bursaries (money to help artists)
• 1998 Arts Council Bursaries
• 1997 BBC Irish Language Award
• 2000 Orange Prize for Fiction, she was shortlisted for her book The Dancers Dancing
• 2014 Hennessy Literature Award
• 2015 Irish PEN Award
• 2019 BBC Irish Language Award

Books and Plays

Éilís Ní Dhuibhne has written many different types of books and plays.

Novels in English

• The Bray House (1990)
• Singles (1994)
• The Dancers Dancing (1999)
• Fox, Swallow, Scarecrow (2007)
• Sister Caravaggio (2014)

Novels in Irish

• Dúnmharú sa Daingean (2001)
• Cailíní Beaga Ghleann na mBláth (2003)
• Hurlamaboc (2005)
• Dún an Airgid (2008)
• Dordán (2011)
• Aisling Nó Iníon A (2015)

Collections of Stories

• Blood and Water (1988)
• Eating Women Is Not Recommended (1991)
• The Inland Ice (1997)
• The Pale Gold of Alaska (2000)
• Midwife to the Fairies (2003)
• The Shelter of Neighbours (2012)
• Little Red and Other Stories (2020)

Children's Books

Éilís Ní Dhuibhne has written several books especially for young readers:

• The Uncommon Cormorant (1990)
• Hugo and the Sunshine Girl (1991)
• The Hiring Fair (1992)
• Blaeberry Sunday (1993)
• Penny Farthing Sally (1996)
• The Sparkling Rain (2004)
• Snobs, Dogs and Scobies (2011)

Plays

She has also written plays that have been performed:

• Dún na mBan Trí Thine (first performed in Dublin in 1995)
• Milseog an tSamhraidh (first performed in Dublin in 1996)
• The Nettle Shirts (first performed at the Peacock Theatre in Dublin in 1998)

Memoirs

• Twelve Thousand Days: A Memoir of Love and Loss (2018)