Colm Tóibín
Encyclopedia
Colm Tóibín (ˈkɔl̪ˠəmˠ t̪ˠoːˈbʲiːnʲ; born May 30, 1955) is a multi-award-winning Irish
novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, journalist, critic, and, most recently, poet.
Tóibín is Leonard Milberg Lecturer in Irish Letters at Princeton University in New Jersey and succeeded Martin Amis
as professor of creative writing at the University of Manchester. He is regarded by critics as having excelled at the many literary forms he has experimented with. Tóibín was hailed as a champion of minorities as he collected the 2011 Irish PEN Award. In 2011, he was named one of "Britain's top 300 intellectuals" by The Observer
, despite being Irish.
, County Wexford
, in the southeast of Ireland.
He was the second youngest of five children. His grandfather, Patrick Tobin, was a member of the IRA
, as was his grand-uncle Michael Tobin. Patrick Tobin took part in the 1916 Rebellion
in Enniscorthy and was subsequently interned in Frongoch
in Wales
. Colm Tóibín's father was a teacher who was involved in the Fianna Fáil
party in Enniscorthy. He received his secondary education at St Peter's College, Wexford
, where he was a boarder
between 1970 and 1972. He later spoke of finding some of the priests attractive. He progressed to University College Dublin
, graduating in 1975. Immediately after graduation, he left for Barcelona
. Tóibín's first novel, 1990's The South
, was partly inspired by his time in Barcelona; as was, more directly, his non-fiction Homage to Barcelona (1990). Having returned to Ireland in 1978, he began to study for a masters degree. However, he did not submit his thesis
and left academia, at least partly, for a career in journalism.
.
The Heather Blazing
(1992), his second novel, was followed by The Story of the Night
(1996) and The Blackwater Lightship
(1999). His fifth novel, The Master
(2004), is a fictional account of portions in the life of author Henry James
. He is the author of other non-fiction books: Bad Blood: A Walk Along the Irish Border
(1994), (reprinted from the 1987 original edition) and The Sign of the Cross: Travels in Catholic Europe (1994).
He has written a play that was staged in Dublin in August 2004, Beauty in a Broken Place. He has continued to work as a journalist, both in Ireland and abroad, writing for the London Review of Books
among others. He has also achieved a reputation as a literary critic: he has edited a book on Paul Durcan
, The Kilfenora Teaboy (1997); The Penguin Book of Irish Fiction (1999); and has written The Modern Library: The 200 Best Novels in English since 1950 (1999), with Carmen Callil
; a collection of essays, Love in A Dark Time: Gay lives from Wilde to Almodóvar
(2002); and a study on Lady Gregory, Lady Gregory's Toothbrush (2002).
Tóibín is a member of Aosdána
and has been visiting professor at Stanford University
, The University of Texas at Austin and Princeton University
. He has also lectured at several other universities, including Boston College
, New York University
, Loyola University Maryland, and The College of the Holy Cross. In 2008, he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (DLitt) at the University of Ulster
in recognition of his contribution to contemporary Irish Literature. In January 2010, he was named the winner of the Costa Novel Award
for his novel Brooklyn
.
Tóibín has written two short story collections. His first Mothers and Sons
which, as the name suggests, explores the relationship between mothers and their sons, was published in 2006 and was reviewed favourably (including by Pico Iyer
in The New York Times
). His second, broader collection The Empty Family
was published in 2010.
The University of Manchester recently named Tóibín as its new professor of creative writing, succeeding Martin Amis
. Tóibín hosted the English novelist and 2004 Man Booker Prize
winner Alan Hollinghurst
at an event in the university on 10 October 2011.
In 2011, The Times Literary Supplement
published his poem "Cush Gap, 2007".
At the 2011 Global Irish Economic Forum
in Dublin Castle
, Tóibín described Irish emigration as a “tragedy”.
—Tóibín is openly
gay—but also on identity in front of loss. The "Wexford" novels, The Heather Blazing
and The Blackwater Lightship
, use the town of Enniscorthy
where he was born as narrative material, together with the history of Ireland and the death of his father. An autobiographical account and reflection on this episode can be found in the non-fiction book, The Sign of the Cross. In 2009 he published Brooklyn
, a tale of a woman emigrating to Brooklyn
from Enniscorthy
.
Two other novels, The Story of the Night
and The Master
revolve around characters who have to deal with a homosexual identity and take place outside Ireland for the most part, with a character having to cope with living abroad. His first novel, The South
, seems to have ingredients of both lines of work. It can be read together with The Heather Blazing as a diptych
of Protestant and Catholic
heritages in County Wexford
, or it can be grouped with the "living abroad" novels. A third topic that link The South and The Heather Blazing is that of creation. Of painting in the first case and of the careful wording of a judge's verdict in the second. This third thematic line culminated in The Master, a study on identity, precedeed by a non-fiction book in the same subject, Love in a Dark Time
. The book of short stories "Mothers and Sons" deal with family themes, both in Ireland
and Catalonia
, and homosexuality.
Tóibín has written about gay sex in several novels, though Brooklyn contains a heterosexual sex scene in which the heroine loses her virginity.
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, journalist, critic, and, most recently, poet.
Tóibín is Leonard Milberg Lecturer in Irish Letters at Princeton University in New Jersey and succeeded Martin Amis
Martin Amis
Martin Louis Amis is a British novelist, the author of many novels including Money and London Fields . He is currently Professor of Creative Writing at the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester, but will step down at the end of the 2010/11 academic year...
as professor of creative writing at the University of Manchester. He is regarded by critics as having excelled at the many literary forms he has experimented with. Tóibín was hailed as a champion of minorities as he collected the 2011 Irish PEN Award. In 2011, he was named one of "Britain's top 300 intellectuals" by The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
, despite being Irish.
Early life
Colm Tóibín was born in 1955 in EnniscorthyEnniscorthy
Enniscorthy is the second largest town in County Wexford, Ireland. The population of the town and environs is 9538. The Placenames Database of Ireland sheds no light on the origins of the town's name. It may refer either to the "Island of Corthaidh" or the "Island of Rocks". With a history going...
, County Wexford
County Wexford
County Wexford is a county in Ireland. It is part of the South-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Wexford. In pre-Norman times it was part of the Kingdom of Uí Cheinnselaig, whose capital was at Ferns. Wexford County Council is the local...
, in the southeast of Ireland.
He was the second youngest of five children. His grandfather, Patrick Tobin, was a member of the IRA
Irish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army was an Irish republican revolutionary military organisation. It was descended from the Irish Volunteers, an organisation established on 25 November 1913 that staged the Easter Rising in April 1916...
, as was his grand-uncle Michael Tobin. Patrick Tobin took part in the 1916 Rebellion
Easter Rising
The Easter Rising was an insurrection staged in Ireland during Easter Week, 1916. The Rising was mounted by Irish republicans with the aims of ending British rule in Ireland and establishing the Irish Republic at a time when the British Empire was heavily engaged in the First World War...
in Enniscorthy and was subsequently interned in Frongoch
Frongoch
The village of Frongoch is located in Gwynedd, Wales. It lies close to the market town of Bala, on the A4212 road in north Wales.It was the home of the Frongoch internment camp, used to hold German prisoners-of-war during First World War, and then Irish Republican prisoners from the 1916...
in Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
. Colm Tóibín's father was a teacher who was involved in the Fianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party , more commonly known as Fianna Fáil is a centrist political party in the Republic of Ireland, founded on 23 March 1926. Fianna Fáil's name is traditionally translated into English as Soldiers of Destiny, although a more accurate rendition would be Warriors of Fál...
party in Enniscorthy. He received his secondary education at St Peter's College, Wexford
St Peter's College, Wexford
St Peter's College, Wexford is an Irish secondary school and former seminary located in Summerhill, overlooking Wexford town. It is a single sex school for male pupils. Currently its school population is approximately 700. The current principal is Mr. Patrick Quigley and the current vice-principal...
, where he was a boarder
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
between 1970 and 1972. He later spoke of finding some of the priests attractive. He progressed to University College Dublin
University College Dublin
University College Dublin ) - formally known as University College Dublin - National University of Ireland, Dublin is the Republic of Ireland's largest, and Ireland's second largest, university, with over 1,300 faculty and 17,000 students...
, graduating in 1975. Immediately after graduation, he left for Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
. Tóibín's first novel, 1990's The South
The South (novel)
The South is a 1990 novel by Irish writer Colm Tóibín.Katherine, a Protestant woman from Ireland, arrives in Barcelona in the 1950s having left her husband and son. Very slowly she starts discovering the city and gets to meet local painters. The dictatorship of Francisco Franco and the still recent...
, was partly inspired by his time in Barcelona; as was, more directly, his non-fiction Homage to Barcelona (1990). Having returned to Ireland in 1978, he began to study for a masters degree. However, he did not submit his thesis
Thesis
A dissertation or thesis is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings...
and left academia, at least partly, for a career in journalism.
Career
The early 1980s were an especially bright period in Irish journalism, and the heyday for the monthly news magazine Magill. Tóibín became the magazine's editor in 1982, and remained in the position until 1985. He left due to ongoing differences with the managing director Vincent BrowneVincent Browne
Vincent Browne is an Irish print and broadcast journalist. He is a columnist with The Irish Times and The Sunday Business Post and a part time barrister....
.
The Heather Blazing
The Heather Blazing
The Heather Blazing is the 1992 novel by Irish writer Colm Tóibín. It was the author's second novel and allowed him to become a full time fiction writer. The intensity of the prose and the emotional tension under the colder eye with which the events are seen, provided him with a faithful...
(1992), his second novel, was followed by The Story of the Night
The Story of the Night
The Story of the Night is a novel by Irish novelist Colm Tóibín, set in Argentina in the 1980s where the main character, Richard, was born. Son of a British mother and a dead father, he must come to terms with the hidden story of his two countries now at war and his sexuality as he grows...
(1996) and The Blackwater Lightship
The Blackwater Lightship
The Blackwater Lightship is a 1999 novel written by Irish novelist Colm Tóibín, and was short-listed for the Booker Prize.-Plot summary:The story is described from the viewpoint of Helen, a successful school principal living with her husband and two children in Ireland...
(1999). His fifth novel, The Master
The Master (novel)
The Master is a novel by Irish writer Colm Tóibín. It is his fifth novel and it was shortlisted for the 2004 Booker Prize and received the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the Lambda Literary Award, the Los Angeles Times Novel of the Year Award and, in France, Le prix du meilleur livre...
(2004), is a fictional account of portions in the life of author Henry James
Henry James
Henry James, OM was an American-born writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr., a clergyman, and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James....
. He is the author of other non-fiction books: Bad Blood: A Walk Along the Irish Border
Bad Blood: A Walk Along the Irish Border
Bad Blood: A Walk Along the Irish Border was originally published by Irish novelist Colm Tóibín in 1987 with the title Walking Along the Border. The book includes photographs by Tony O'Shea, and describes the people and the landscape between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland - and the...
(1994), (reprinted from the 1987 original edition) and The Sign of the Cross: Travels in Catholic Europe (1994).
He has written a play that was staged in Dublin in August 2004, Beauty in a Broken Place. He has continued to work as a journalist, both in Ireland and abroad, writing for the London Review of Books
London Review of Books
The London Review of Books is a fortnightly British magazine of literary and intellectual essays.-History:The LRB was founded in 1979, during the year-long lock-out at The Times, by publisher A...
among others. He has also achieved a reputation as a literary critic: he has edited a book on Paul Durcan
Paul Durcan
Paul Durcan is a contemporary Irish poet.-Early life:Durcan grew up in Dublin and in Turlough, County Mayo. His father, John, was a barrister and circuit court judge; father and son had a difficult and formal relationship. Durcan enjoyed a warmer and more natural relationship with his mother,...
, The Kilfenora Teaboy (1997); The Penguin Book of Irish Fiction (1999); and has written The Modern Library: The 200 Best Novels in English since 1950 (1999), with Carmen Callil
Carmen Callil
Carmen Thérèse Callil is a publisher, writer and critic. She founded Virago Press in 1973.-Life:Callil was born in Melbourne Australia, but has lived in London since 1960. Her mother Lorraine Clare Allen, widowed in her early forties, raised four children of whom Carmen was the third...
; a collection of essays, Love in A Dark Time: Gay lives from Wilde to Almodóvar
Love in A Dark Time
Love In a Dark Time: Gay Lives from Wilde to Almodóvar is a collection of essays by Irish novelist Colm Tóibín published in 2002.The first essay was a long review, published originally in the London Review of Books, on A History of Gay Literature: The Male Tradition by Gregory Woods...
(2002); and a study on Lady Gregory, Lady Gregory's Toothbrush (2002).
Tóibín is a member of Aosdána
Aosdána
Aosdána is an Irish association of Artists. It was created in 1981 on the initiative of a group of writers and with support from the Arts Council of Ireland. Membership, which is by invitation from current members, is limited to 250 individuals; before 2005 it was limited to 200...
and has been visiting professor at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, The University of Texas at Austin and Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
. He has also lectured at several other universities, including Boston College
Boston College
Boston College is a private Jesuit research university located in the village of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA. The main campus is bisected by the border between the cities of Boston and Newton. It has 9,200 full-time undergraduates and 4,000 graduate students. Its name reflects its early...
, New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, Loyola University Maryland, and The College of the Holy Cross. In 2008, he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (DLitt) at the University of Ulster
University of Ulster
The University of Ulster is a multi-campus, co-educational university located in Northern Ireland. It is the largest single university in Ireland, discounting the federal National University of Ireland...
in recognition of his contribution to contemporary Irish Literature. In January 2010, he was named the winner of the Costa Novel Award
2009 Costa Book Awards
The shortlists were announced on 25 November 2009. The winners in each category were announced on4 January 2009 on the Front Row programme.-Children's Book:Winner:*Patrick Ness, The Ask and the AnswerShortlist:*Siobhan Dowd, Solace of the Road...
for his novel Brooklyn
Brooklyn (novel)
-Plot summary:Eilis Lacey is a young woman who is unable to find work in 1950s Ireland. Her older sister Rose organizes a meeting with Father Flood visiting from New York. He tells Eilis of the wonderful opportunities awaiting her with very good employment prospects. Because of this she emigrates...
.
Tóibín has written two short story collections. His first Mothers and Sons
Mothers and Sons
Mothers and Sons is a collection of short stories written by Irish writer Colm Tóibín and published in 2006. The book was published in hardback by Picador, and features nine stories, each of which explores an aspect of the mother-son relationship...
which, as the name suggests, explores the relationship between mothers and their sons, was published in 2006 and was reviewed favourably (including by Pico Iyer
Pico Iyer
Pico Iyer is a British-born essayist and novelist. He is the author of numerous books on travel including Video Night in Kathmandu. His shorter pieces regularly appear in Time, Harper's, NYRB and many other publications.-Life and career:...
in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
). His second, broader collection The Empty Family
The Empty Family
The Empty Family is a collection of short stories by Irish author Colm Tóibín. It was published in the UK in October 2010 and was released in the US in January 2011....
was published in 2010.
The University of Manchester recently named Tóibín as its new professor of creative writing, succeeding Martin Amis
Martin Amis
Martin Louis Amis is a British novelist, the author of many novels including Money and London Fields . He is currently Professor of Creative Writing at the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester, but will step down at the end of the 2010/11 academic year...
. Tóibín hosted the English novelist and 2004 Man Booker Prize
Man Booker Prize
The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland, or Zimbabwe. The winner of the Man Booker Prize is generally assured of international renown and...
winner Alan Hollinghurst
Alan Hollinghurst
Alan Hollinghurst is a British novelist, and winner of the 2004 Man Booker Prize for The Line of Beauty.-Biography:Hollinghurst was born on 26 May 1954 in Stroud, Gloucestershire, the only child of James Hollinghurst, a bank manager, and his wife, Elizabeth...
at an event in the university on 10 October 2011.
In 2011, The Times Literary Supplement
The Times Literary Supplement
The Times Literary Supplement is a weekly literary review published in London by News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation.-History:...
published his poem "Cush Gap, 2007".
At the 2011 Global Irish Economic Forum
Global Irish Economic Forum
The Global Irish Economic Forum is a biennial conference held in Dublin, Ireland. Inspired by the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, international figures from the worlds of business and culture attend the event. The first Forum was held at Farmleigh in Dublin's Phoenix Park from 18–20...
in Dublin Castle
Dublin Castle
Dublin Castle off Dame Street, Dublin, Ireland, was until 1922 the fortified seat of British rule in Ireland, and is now a major Irish government complex. Most of it dates from the 18th century, though a castle has stood on the site since the days of King John, the first Lord of Ireland...
, Tóibín described Irish emigration as a “tragedy”.
Themes
Tóibín's work explores several main lines: the depiction of Irish society, living abroad, the process of creativity and the preservation of a personal identity, focusing especially on homosexual identitiesSexual identity
Sexual identity is a term that, like sex, has two distinctively different meanings. One describes an identity roughly based on sexual orientation, the other an identity based on sexual characteristics, which is not socially based but based on biology, a concept related to, but different from,...
—Tóibín is openly
Coming out
Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....
gay—but also on identity in front of loss. The "Wexford" novels, The Heather Blazing
The Heather Blazing
The Heather Blazing is the 1992 novel by Irish writer Colm Tóibín. It was the author's second novel and allowed him to become a full time fiction writer. The intensity of the prose and the emotional tension under the colder eye with which the events are seen, provided him with a faithful...
and The Blackwater Lightship
The Blackwater Lightship
The Blackwater Lightship is a 1999 novel written by Irish novelist Colm Tóibín, and was short-listed for the Booker Prize.-Plot summary:The story is described from the viewpoint of Helen, a successful school principal living with her husband and two children in Ireland...
, use the town of Enniscorthy
Enniscorthy
Enniscorthy is the second largest town in County Wexford, Ireland. The population of the town and environs is 9538. The Placenames Database of Ireland sheds no light on the origins of the town's name. It may refer either to the "Island of Corthaidh" or the "Island of Rocks". With a history going...
where he was born as narrative material, together with the history of Ireland and the death of his father. An autobiographical account and reflection on this episode can be found in the non-fiction book, The Sign of the Cross. In 2009 he published Brooklyn
Brooklyn (novel)
-Plot summary:Eilis Lacey is a young woman who is unable to find work in 1950s Ireland. Her older sister Rose organizes a meeting with Father Flood visiting from New York. He tells Eilis of the wonderful opportunities awaiting her with very good employment prospects. Because of this she emigrates...
, a tale of a woman emigrating to Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
from Enniscorthy
Enniscorthy
Enniscorthy is the second largest town in County Wexford, Ireland. The population of the town and environs is 9538. The Placenames Database of Ireland sheds no light on the origins of the town's name. It may refer either to the "Island of Corthaidh" or the "Island of Rocks". With a history going...
.
Two other novels, The Story of the Night
The Story of the Night
The Story of the Night is a novel by Irish novelist Colm Tóibín, set in Argentina in the 1980s where the main character, Richard, was born. Son of a British mother and a dead father, he must come to terms with the hidden story of his two countries now at war and his sexuality as he grows...
and The Master
The Master (novel)
The Master is a novel by Irish writer Colm Tóibín. It is his fifth novel and it was shortlisted for the 2004 Booker Prize and received the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the Lambda Literary Award, the Los Angeles Times Novel of the Year Award and, in France, Le prix du meilleur livre...
revolve around characters who have to deal with a homosexual identity and take place outside Ireland for the most part, with a character having to cope with living abroad. His first novel, The South
The South (novel)
The South is a 1990 novel by Irish writer Colm Tóibín.Katherine, a Protestant woman from Ireland, arrives in Barcelona in the 1950s having left her husband and son. Very slowly she starts discovering the city and gets to meet local painters. The dictatorship of Francisco Franco and the still recent...
, seems to have ingredients of both lines of work. It can be read together with The Heather Blazing as a diptych
Diptych
A diptych di "two" + ptychē "fold") is any object with two flat plates attached at a hinge. Devices of this form were quite popular in the ancient world, wax tablets being coated with wax on inner faces, for recording notes and for measuring time and direction.In Late Antiquity, ivory diptychs with...
of Protestant and Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
heritages in County Wexford
County Wexford
County Wexford is a county in Ireland. It is part of the South-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Wexford. In pre-Norman times it was part of the Kingdom of Uí Cheinnselaig, whose capital was at Ferns. Wexford County Council is the local...
, or it can be grouped with the "living abroad" novels. A third topic that link The South and The Heather Blazing is that of creation. Of painting in the first case and of the careful wording of a judge's verdict in the second. This third thematic line culminated in The Master, a study on identity, precedeed by a non-fiction book in the same subject, Love in a Dark Time
Love in A Dark Time
Love In a Dark Time: Gay Lives from Wilde to Almodóvar is a collection of essays by Irish novelist Colm Tóibín published in 2002.The first essay was a long review, published originally in the London Review of Books, on A History of Gay Literature: The Male Tradition by Gregory Woods...
. The book of short stories "Mothers and Sons" deal with family themes, both in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
and Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
, and homosexuality.
Tóibín has written about gay sex in several novels, though Brooklyn contains a heterosexual sex scene in which the heroine loses her virginity.
Awards
- The Heather BlazingThe Heather BlazingThe Heather Blazing is the 1992 novel by Irish writer Colm Tóibín. It was the author's second novel and allowed him to become a full time fiction writer. The intensity of the prose and the emotional tension under the colder eye with which the events are seen, provided him with a faithful...
won the 1993 Encore AwardEncore AwardThe £10,000 Encore Award for the best second novel - now awarded biennially - was first awarded in 1990. It is administered by the Society of Authors and is sponsored by Lucy Astor. The award fills a niche in the catalogue of literary prizes by celebrating the achievement of outstanding second...
for a second novel. - The Blackwater LightshipThe Blackwater LightshipThe Blackwater Lightship is a 1999 novel written by Irish novelist Colm Tóibín, and was short-listed for the Booker Prize.-Plot summary:The story is described from the viewpoint of Helen, a successful school principal living with her husband and two children in Ireland...
was shortlisted for the 1999 Booker Prize and the 2001 International IMPAC Dublin Literary AwardInternational IMPAC Dublin Literary AwardThe International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award is an international literary award for a work of fiction, jointly sponsored by the city of Dublin, Ireland and the company IMPAC. At €100,000 it is one of the richest literary prizes in the world...
. - The MasterThe Master (novel)The Master is a novel by Irish writer Colm Tóibín. It is his fifth novel and it was shortlisted for the 2004 Booker Prize and received the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the Lambda Literary Award, the Los Angeles Times Novel of the Year Award and, in France, Le prix du meilleur livre...
won the 2006 International IMPAC Dublin Literary AwardInternational IMPAC Dublin Literary AwardThe International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award is an international literary award for a work of fiction, jointly sponsored by the city of Dublin, Ireland and the company IMPAC. At €100,000 it is one of the richest literary prizes in the world...
, was shortlisted for the 2004 Booker Prize, won the Los Angeles TimesLos Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
Novel of the Year, the Stonewall Book AwardStonewall Book AwardSponsored by the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Round Table of the American Library Association , the Stonewall Book Award is for LGBT books...
and the Lambda Literary AwardLambda Literary AwardLambda Literary Awards are awarded yearly by the US-based Lambda Literary Foundation to published works which celebrate or explore LGBT themes. Categories include Humor, Romance and Biography. To qualify, a book must have been published in the United States in the year current to the award...
, and was listed by The New York Times as one of the ten most notable books of 2004. - Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of LiteratureRoyal Society of LiteratureThe Royal Society of Literature is the "senior literary organisation in Britain". It was founded in 1820 by George IV, in order to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". The Society's first president was Thomas Burgess, who later became the Bishop of Salisbury...
in 2007 - BrooklynBrooklyn (novel)-Plot summary:Eilis Lacey is a young woman who is unable to find work in 1950s Ireland. Her older sister Rose organizes a meeting with Father Flood visiting from New York. He tells Eilis of the wonderful opportunities awaiting her with very good employment prospects. Because of this she emigrates...
won the 2009 Costa Novel AwardCosta Book AwardsThe Costa Book Awards are a series of literary awards given to books by authors based in Great Britain and Ireland. They were known as the Whitbread Book Awards until 2005, after which Costa Coffee, a subsidiary of Whitbread, took over sponsorship....
, was shortlisted for the 2011 International IMPAC Dublin Literary AwardInternational IMPAC Dublin Literary AwardThe International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award is an international literary award for a work of fiction, jointly sponsored by the city of Dublin, Ireland and the company IMPAC. At €100,000 it is one of the richest literary prizes in the world...
, and was longlisted for the 2009 Booker Prize. - In 2010 he was awarded the 38th annual AWB Vincent American Ireland Fund Literary Award.
- He was awarded the 2011 Irish Pen Award for contribution to Irish literature.
- He was shortlisted for the 2011 Frank O'Connor International Short Story AwardFrank O'Connor International Short Story AwardThe Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award is a literary award for short story collections. At 35,000 euro for the best book of short stories it claims to be the world's largest prize for a short story collection. Each year, roughly sixty books are longlisted, with either four or six books...
for The Empty FamilyThe Empty FamilyThe Empty Family is a collection of short stories by Irish author Colm Tóibín. It was published in the UK in October 2010 and was released in the US in January 2011....
.
Sources
- Ryan, Ray. Ireland and Scotland: Literature and Culture, State and Nation, 1966–2000. Oxford University Press, 2002.
Further reading
- Allen Randolph, Jody. "Colm Tóibín, December 2009." Close to the Next Moment. Manchester: Carcanet, 2010.
- Boland, Eavan. "Colm Tóibín." Irish Writers on Writing. San Antonio: Trinity University Press, 2007.
- Delaney, Paul. Reading Colm Tóibín. Dublin: Liffey Press, 2008.
External links
- Author's site
- http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2008/2356062.htmTranscript of interview with Ramona KovalRamona KovalRamona Koval is an Australian broadcaster, writer and journalist.Her parents were Yiddish-speaking survivors of the Holocaust who arrived in Melbourne from Poland in 1950....
], The Book ShowThe Book ShowThe Book Show is an Australian ABC radio program for the discussion of everything relating to the written word. It is broadcast live around Australia on Radio National with a daily weekday morning show which is then replayed nightly and also has a Sunday evening show. The show is hosted by Ramona...
, ABC Radio National, 5 September 2008 - British Council's Contemporary Writers
- The Guardian links of online work
- Colm Tóibín's writing room
- "Rereading: The Tunnel by Ernesto Sábato"
- Tóibín archive from The New York Review of BooksThe New York Review of BooksThe New York Review of Books is a fortnightly magazine with articles on literature, culture and current affairs. Published in New York City, it takes as its point of departure that the discussion of important books is itself an indispensable literary activity...
- Colm Toibin Radio Interview on Entitled OpinionsEntitled OpinionsEntitled Opinions is a literary talk show hosted by Robert P. Harrison, a professor of French and Italian at Stanford University. The show is also available as a podcast. Topics range broadly on issues related to literature, ideas, and lived experience...
with Robert P. HarrisonRobert P. HarrisonRobert P. Harrison is the Rosina Pierotti Chair of Italian Literature at Stanford University.He was born in Izmir, Turkey, and raised in Rome. He is the host of the podcast Entitled Opinions . He plays lead guitar for the cerebral rock band Glass Wave.- External links :* * *... - Colm Toibin Video Interview at the Wheeler Centre on BrooklynBrooklynBrooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
- An interview with Colm Toibin from Bookslut