Matthew Sweeney

Matthew Sweeney ( born 1952 in Lifford, County Donegal) is an Irish writer who was known primarily as a poet.

Life

Sweeney was born in 1952 in Donegal, the northernmost Irish county. He attended a school in County Meath and the UCD in Dublin. In 1973 he moved to London, which became his principal residence. Sweeney studied in London and at the University of Freiburg in chemical engineering, but the study did not complete.

Published in 1981 with A Dream of Maps Sweeney first volume of poetry, numerous others were to follow. In addition to poetry to adult reader writes Sweeney also poems and stories for children and has (co - ) editor of several poetry anthologies. On the German youth book Fuchs and 2008 in a translation by Jan Wagner poetry collection Pink Milk in Berlin in 2003 published Publishing. Sweeney now lives back in Ireland, alternately in the southern County Cork and Donegal. He is a member of Aosdána.

Awards (selection)

• Prudence Farmer Prize (1984 )
• Henfield Writing Fellowship ( 1986)
• Cholmondely Award ( 1987)
• DAAD Fellowship in Berlin
• Bisto Book of the Year Award ( Merit Award, 2003) for Fox

Works (selection)

Poetry

• A Dream of Maps ( 1981)
• A Roundhouse (1983 )
• Blue Shoes ( 1989)
• Cacti (1992 )
• The Bridal Suite ( 1997)
• A Smell of Fish (2000)
• Sanctuary (2004)
• Black Moon (2007)

Books for Children

• The Chinese Dressing Gown ( 1987) Fiction
• The Snow Vulture (1992 ) Fiction
• The Flying Spring Onion (1992 ), poems
• Fatso in the Red Suit ( 1995), poems
• Up On The Roof: New & Selected Poems (2001)
• Fox (2002 ) Fiction

Non-fiction

• Writing Poetry (1997/2003), with John Hartley Williams

Works on German

• Fuchs, Berlin Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-8270-5106-1 ( YA )
• Pink milk. Poems. Selected. , Trans. and with an epilogue edited by Jan Wagner. Berlin Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 3-8270-0744-5