Life
1943- ; b. Achill, Co. Mayo; ed. Mungret and UCD; trained for priesthood
but worked as teacher instead; refounded Poetry Ireland and Poetry
Ireland Review, 1979; first published by Profile in Clondalkin, Co.
Dublin; conducted hand-printing press from 1972; successively fnd.-director of Aquila, St. Bueno’s, and Dedalus,
1985, with an initial address at Cypress Downs; undertook publication
of Kinsella’s Peppercannister series under the Dedalus imprint; ed.
Dedalus Irish Poets (1992), collecting ‘the best of the original
poetry published by The Dedalus since its inception’; ed. Tracks;
Christ With Urban Fox (1997); winner of O’Shaugnessy Prize
for Irish Poetry, 1998; In the Name of the Wolf (1999), concerning
the visitations of a werewolf in Co. Mayo; issued The Coffin Master
and Other Stories (2000); winner of £7,875 Marten Toonder Award, 2002;
issued Undertow (2002), a novel of the western isles; new collection,
Manhandling the Deity and a trans. of Phillipe Jones, Breath
of Words (both 2003); winner of Tom McNulty poem award, June 2004. OCIL
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Works
Poetry, Stalking After Time (Dublin:
Profile 1977); Island (Dublin: St Bueno [1978]), , 16pp. [design
& ill. by Barbara Deane; hand-printed ltd. edn.]; High Sacrifice
(Dublin: Dolmen 1981) [ltd. edn., 75]; Voices (Edinburgh 1983);
Winter in Meath (1985), Road, with Cypress and Star
(1988), 77pp. [ded. ‘for Ursula’; cover based on Van Gogh with
interleaved engravings by John Behan; title poem, pp.49-58]; Far Country
[Icarus Editions, No. 1] (Dublin: Dedalus 1992); The Stylized City:
New and Selected Poems (1991); Island: One Man’s Place
(Dublin: Poolbeg Press 1994), 240pp.; Christ, with Urban Fox (Dublin:
Dedalus; NY: White Pine Press 1997), 71pp.; trans., Anise Koltz, Aux
Banquets du Diable / At the Devil’s Banquets (Dublin: Dedalus
1998), 84pp.; John F. Deane, Toccata and Fugue: New and Selected Poems
(Manchester: Carcanet Press 2000), 95pp.; The Hero, Home (Dublin:
Dedalus 2001), 28pp.; Manhandling the Deity (Manchester: Carcanet
Press 2003), 128pp.; trans., Philippe Jones, The Breath of Words (Dublin:
Dedalus Press 2003), 74pp.
Short Fiction, Walking on Water (Dublin: Dedalus 1994); Free Range (Dublin: Wolfhound 1994), 192pp. [incl. "The Widow, Ellie Claine"; "Between Islands"; "The Wet Finger"; "The Juniper Files"], 192pp.; The Coffin Master and Other Stories (Belfast: Blackstaff 2000), 187pp.
Novels, One Man’s Place (Poolbeg 1994), 229pp.; Flightlines (Poolbeg Press 1995), 303pp.; In the Name of the Wolf (Dublin: Wolfhound Press 1999), 176pp.; Undertow (Belfast: Blackstaff Press 2002), 400pp.
Miscellaneous, ed., , ed., Six American Poets (Dedalus 1989); ed., Irish Poetry of Faith and Doubt, The Cold Heaven (Dublin: Wolfhound Press 1990) [infra]; ed., The Dedalus Irish Poets (Dublin: Dedalus Press 1992) [infra].
Contributions incl. "The Return" [ded. to Ursula], long poem, in ‘Filíocht Nua: New Poetry’, New Hibernia Review, 1, 1 (Spring 1997), pp.69-77, set in S. Carolina, Virginia, and Kentucky and casting back in mind to a puritan Irish education.
The Dedalus Irish Poets, ed. J. F. Deane (Dublin: Dedalus Press 1992) [q.pp.], contains poems by Robert Greacen; Conleth Ellis; John F. Deane; Patrick Deeley; Gerard Smyth; Richard Kell; Macdara Woods; Hugh Maxton; Tom MacIntyre; Dennis O’Driscoll; Charlie Donnelly; Patrick O’Brien; Padraig J. Daly; Valentine Iremonger; Denis Devlin; Pat Boran; Ciaran O’Driscoll; John Jordan; John Ennis; Leland Bardwell; Robert Welch; Paul Murray [Newcastle, Co. Down]; Brian Coffey; Thomas McCarthy.
Irish Poetry of Faith and Doubt, ed. John F. Deane (Dublin: Wolfhound Press 1991), 191pp., incls. poems by Cecil Frances Alexander, Patrick Kavanagh and Padraic Fallon, et al.; also Seamus Heaney, "Docker", "Poor Woman in a City Church", "In Gallarus Oratory", "The Other Side", "In Illo Tempore" [155-58]; Derek Mahon, "Nostaglias" [159], &c.
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Criticism
Maurice Harmon, review of Far Country, in Books Ireland
(May 1993), [q.p.].
Peter Cunningham, review of Free Range, in Irish Times (2 July 1994) [‘first prose collection’].
H. M. Buckley, review of Free Range in Books Ireland (April 1995), p.81 [infra]
John Kenny, review of In the Name of the Wolf in Irish Times (27 March 1999), [infra]
Sue Leonard, review of In the Name of the Wolf, in Books Ireland (Summer 1999), p.185 [infra]
Peter Sirr, review of John F. Deane, Toccata and Fugue: New and Selected Poems (Carcanet), 95pp., in The Irish Times (2 Sept. 2000) [infra]
Maurice Harmon, review of Undertow, in Books Ireland (Dec. 2002), p.311 [infra].
Michael Brett, notice of The Coffin Master and Other Stories (Belfast: Blackstaff), Times Literary Supplement (31 March 2000), p.22.
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)