John F. Deane, Irish Poet and
Fiction Writer
Fiction Writer
Born Achill Island 1943; founded Poetry Ireland - the National Poetry Society -
and The Poetry Ireland Review, 1979; Published several collections of poetry and
some fiction; Won the O’Shaughnessy Award for Irish Poetry, the Marten
Toonder Award for Literature and poetry prizes from Italy and Romania.
Elected Secretary-General of the European Academy of Poetry in 1996.
Shortlisted for both the T.S.Eliot prize and The Irish Times Poetry Now Award,
won residencies in Bavaria, Monaco and Paris. Latest poetry collection “The
Instruments of Art”, Carcanet 2005; “In Dogged Loyalty”, essays on religious
poetry, Columba 2006; latest fiction “The Heather Fields and Other Stories,”
Blackstaff Press 2007. His latest poetry collection, “A Little Book of Hours”,
came from Carcanet in 2008. He is a member of Aosdána, the body established
by the Arts Council to honour artists “whose work had made an outstanding
contribution to the arts in Ireland”. In 2007 the French Government honoured
him by making him “Chevalier de l’ordre des arts et des lettres”. In 2008 John
F. Deane was visiting scholar in the Burns Library of Boston College.
and The Poetry Ireland Review, 1979; Published several collections of poetry and
some fiction; Won the O’Shaughnessy Award for Irish Poetry, the Marten
Toonder Award for Literature and poetry prizes from Italy and Romania.
Elected Secretary-General of the European Academy of Poetry in 1996.
Shortlisted for both the T.S.Eliot prize and The Irish Times Poetry Now Award,
won residencies in Bavaria, Monaco and Paris. Latest poetry collection “The
Instruments of Art”, Carcanet 2005; “In Dogged Loyalty”, essays on religious
poetry, Columba 2006; latest fiction “The Heather Fields and Other Stories,”
Blackstaff Press 2007. His latest poetry collection, “A Little Book of Hours”,
came from Carcanet in 2008. He is a member of Aosdána, the body established
by the Arts Council to honour artists “whose work had made an outstanding
contribution to the arts in Ireland”. In 2007 the French Government honoured
him by making him “Chevalier de l’ordre des arts et des lettres”. In 2008 John
F. Deane was visiting scholar in the Burns Library of Boston College.
Contact:
johnfmdeane@gmail.com
johnfmdeane@gmail.com
“Taut, fluent sequence, beautifully wrought poems” -- Times Literary Supplement.
“In Deane’s version of the Anglo-Saxon The Dream of the Rood, he uses a very effective mix of
alliterative metre and terza-rima to produce the finest version of Cynewulf’s poem that I have so far
come across. The collection ends with The Return, a longish autobiographical sequence which, with
the threnodic and beautiful When Giants Walked, impressed me as much as anything I have read in
recent months. This book (Christ, with Urban Fox) is well worth its modest price and I know that I
shall return to many of these poems for further and deeper readings.” -- Vernon Scannell, Ambit
Speaking of The Dream of the Rood in Christ, with Urban Fox: “Deane’s translation of the eighth-
century Anglo-Saxon visionary poem is at the heart of his book, and it is enormously impresssive, a
vigorous reconsecration in words of a famous but hitherto remote devotional work. Deane’s modern
English version of the Old English original makes it come alive with new relevance, in language fit to
compare with Pound’s translation of The Seafarer, offering nothing less than a mood shift to a starker
forgotten dimension of human experience” -- from World Literature Today.
“In Deane’s version of the Anglo-Saxon The Dream of the Rood, he uses a very effective mix of
alliterative metre and terza-rima to produce the finest version of Cynewulf’s poem that I have so far
come across. The collection ends with The Return, a longish autobiographical sequence which, with
the threnodic and beautiful When Giants Walked, impressed me as much as anything I have read in
recent months. This book (Christ, with Urban Fox) is well worth its modest price and I know that I
shall return to many of these poems for further and deeper readings.” -- Vernon Scannell, Ambit
Speaking of The Dream of the Rood in Christ, with Urban Fox: “Deane’s translation of the eighth-
century Anglo-Saxon visionary poem is at the heart of his book, and it is enormously impresssive, a
vigorous reconsecration in words of a famous but hitherto remote devotional work. Deane’s modern
English version of the Old English original makes it come alive with new relevance, in language fit to
compare with Pound’s translation of The Seafarer, offering nothing less than a mood shift to a starker
forgotten dimension of human experience” -- from World Literature Today.
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