My name is Dave Lordan.

I am a 36 year old Irish writer, performer, teacher and workshop leader. I am currently the guest editor for The Stinging Fly Magazine.

I have a collection of experimental short fiction “First Book of Frags” coming out with wurmpress in the autumn.

I have won many awards for my writing, including the Patrick Kavanagh Award in 2005.

I am the current holder of the Ireland Chair of Poetry Bursary Award.

I have recently been appointed  Poetry Consultant at the Mater Dei Institute of Dublin City University.

MORE ABOUT ME

Though I write plays, stories and reviews too, I’m best known as a poet, with my two books The Boy and The Ring in 2007 and Invitation to a Sacrifice in 2010 both published by Salmon Poetry in the West of Ireland. ’The Boy…’ was lucky enough to win two big awards for first collections, the Patrick Kavanagh Award and the Strong Award. Invitation was also well recieved: RTE radio said it was an amazing book by one of the best poets I have read and the Irish Times called it as brilliant on the page as it must surely be in performance. On the strength of these two collections I have just been awarded the prestigious Ireland Chair of Poetry Bursary Award. If you would like to read a longer essay about my work here’s one by critic and publisher Kit Fryatt over at the Irish Left Review. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to see some samples of my work.

I’m one of those poets who like to perform their poetry and I’ve been invited to do that at many venues and festivals all over Ireland, from Flatlakes to the Electric Picnic to Dun Laoghaoire Poetry Now. I have also read by invitation in England, Italy, Serbia, Canada and the USA.

I currently teach creative writing for Co Wicklow VEC, to the MA in Poetry Studies at Mater Dei Institute and to numerous school and community groups.

I do  book reviews for Rte Radio 1′s flagship Arena show, and for the Stinging Fly magazine, among others.