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William Wall (b. 1955) is an Irish novelist, poet and short story writer. He was born in Cork City to Margaret (Peggy, nee O'Regan) and Michael (Mich) of Inch, Whitegate in 1955, but grew up in the coastal village of Whitegate. He received his secondary education at the Christian Brothers School in Midleton. He progressed to University College Cork where he graduated in Philosophy and English. He taught as a drama teacher at Presentation Brothers College, Cork, where he inspired Cillian Murphy to enter acting.¹

He published widely as a poet and subsequently as a writer of short fiction. Then in 1997 he won the Patrick Kavanagh Award for poetry. He published his first collection of poetry in that year. His first novel, Alice Falling, a dark study of power and abuse in modern day Ireland, appeared in 2000. Two further novels followed, then a further collection of poetry.

In 2005, This Is The Country appeared. A broad attack on politics in "Celtic Tiger" Ireland, as well as a rite of passage novel, it was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards. It can be read as a satirical allegory on corruption, the link between capitalism and liberal democracy exemplified in the ‘entrepreneurial’ activities of minor drug dealers and gangsters, and reflected in the architecture of business-parks and sink-estates. The political is also in evidence in his second collection of poetry Fahrenheit Says Nothing To Me. He is not a member of Aosdána, the Irish organization for writers and artists. In 2006, his first collection of short fiction, No Paradiso, appeared. He reviews for The Irish Times and occasionally for literary journals. His work has been translated into several languages. He has also appeared on the Irish-language channel TG4, such as in the programme Cogar. He is a longtime sufferer from Still's Disease.

His short fiction can be playful and experimental. One fiction (The William Walls) jests with his own name, listing numerous people of the same name, including three writers and a reference to himself which is somewhat obscure, ironically raises questions of identity and authorial centrality.

Publications

Novels

• This Is The Country (Sceptre, London - 2005, TBD) ISBN 0-340-82215-5
• The Map of Tenderness (Sceptre, London - 2003) ISBN 0-340-82214-7
• Minding Children (Sceptre, London - 2001) ISBN 0-340-75188-6
• Alice Falling (Sceptre, London, and WW Norton, New York - 2000) ISBN 0-340-75187-8

This Is The Country made the Man Booker Prize 2005 longlist.

Poetry

• Fahrenheit Says Nothing To Me (Dedalus Press, Dublin, Ireland - 2004) ISBN 1-904556-21-3
• Mathematics And Other Poems (Collins Press, Cork, Ireland - 1997) ISBN 1-898256-26-8

Short stories

• No Paradiso (Brandon Books, Daingean, Ireland - 2006) ISBN 0-86322-355-9

References

External links

• Author site: William Wall's Homepage
• Download a copy of Mathematics & Other Poems for free under the Creative Commons Licence Download Poetry Collection
• Interview with William Wall
• William Stabile intervista William Wall
• Read one of William Wall's stories

Wikipedia content modification information:

• This page was last modified on 4 October 2008, at 20:54.

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