Leontia Flynn facts for kids

Leontia Flynn is a poet and writer from Northern Ireland. She is known for her thoughtful poems.

Life and Work

Leontia Flynn was born in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland, in 1974. She grew up in areas like Dundrum and Newcastle. She went to Assumption Grammar School in Ballynahinch.

Later, she studied English at Queen's University Belfast. She earned several degrees there, including a PhD. She also studied at Edinburgh University. Since 2005, she has been a professor at the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen's University.

Themes in Her Poetry

Flynn's poems often explore themes like family. She writes about how our past and family history can shape us. She has also written about her father's Alzheimer's disease, which affects memory.

Her work sometimes talks about technology. She even called some of her poems "wikipedia poems." This is because they gather information and ideas in a similar way to how Wikipedia works.

Awards and Recognition

Leontia Flynn has won many important awards for her poetry.

• Her book These Days won the Eric Gregory Award in 2001. It also won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection in 2004. This book was also considered for the Costa Prize.
• In 2004, she was named one of twenty "Next Generation poets." This is a special recognition from the Poetry Book Society.
• She received The Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2008.
• Her book Profit and Loss was a top choice for the Poetry Book Society in 2013. It was also shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize.
• Flynn won the Lawrence O’Shaughnessy Prize for Irish Literature in 2011. She also received the AWB Vincent Literary Award in 2014.
• The Radio was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize. It won the Poetry Now award from the Irish Times.
• In 2021, her short collection "Nina Simone is Singing" was shortlisted for the Michael Marks Awards for Poetry Pamphlets.
• In 2022, she became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. This is a great honor for writers.
• In 2024, she won the Cholmondeley Award for her book Taking Liberties.

Books

Poetry Collections

• Taking Liberties (2023)
• The Radio (2017)
• Profit and Loss (2011)
• Drives (2008)
• These Days (2004)

Poetry Pamphlets

• Nina Simone is Singing (2021)
• Slim New Book (2020)

See also

• Factotum (arts organisation)