Life
1954- ; b. Chicago; moved to Ireland, 1974; issued Edible Anecdotes (1983),
Poetry Books Soc. Recommendation; Author of What’s What (1992),
Poetry Book Choice; No Can Do (2000), a new poetry collection;
Taking My Pen for a Walk (1988) and Two Barks (1999) are
poetry collections for teenagers; winner of Michael Hartnett
Poetry Award, 2001; Arts Council Bursaries in 1985, 1990, and 1998; elected
to Aosdana 2003.
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Works
Poetry Collections, Edible Anecdotes (Dublin:
Dolmen Press 1983); What’s What (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Bloodaxe
1992), 77pp.
For Children, Taking My Pen for a Walk (1988); Two Barks (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Bloodaxe 1999), 62pp., ill. Martin Fish. Review, Books Ireland, Oct. 1999.
Notes
Represented in New Oxford Book of Children’s Verse
(OUP q.d.) and New Faber Book of Children's Verse (Faber. q.d.);
Bright Lights Blaze Out (OUP 1986); Cambridge Contemporary
Poets, 1 (Cambridge UP 1992).
‘Poems Have to Sneak up on You’, in “My
Writing Day” [column], Irish Times (11 March 2000), Weekend,
p.9, by author of No Can Do (Bloodaxe.). O’Callaghan writes:‘[…]
The most important attribute needed for poetry is a sense of how odd it
is to be a humanoid. If you don’t wake up every morning on a foreign
planet, you can forget poetry as a pastime. You make take all the writing
courses you want, but the essential ingredient cannot be taught.’
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)