Sebastian Barry Biography

Irish poet, novelist, and dramatist, born in Dublin, educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He lived in Europe, America, and England before returning to Ireland. Barry's poetry collections include The Water-Colourist (1983), and in 1986 he edited The Inherited Boundaries, an anthology of ‘younger’ poets from the Republic. His plays include Boss Grady's Boys, which was produced at the Abbey Theatre in 1988 and published in Prayers of Sherkin; Boss Grady's Boys: Two Plays (1991). His novel The Engine of Owl-Light (1987) is a poetically intense and experimental work set in America. Barry's fiction is similar to that of some contemporary Irish writers, such as Neil Jordan and Aidan Mathews, in looking away from traditionally insular concerns towards more personal, ‘foreign’ influences.