Colm Toibin

Colm Tóibín, internationally-renowned novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, journalist, critic, poet and one of Ireland’s greatest living writers is a native of Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford. He was educated in CBS Enniscorthy, St Peter’s College, Wexford and U.C.D.. Colm lived in Barcelona, Spain in the 1970s and on his return to Dublin, he worked as a journalist with In Dublin, Hibernia and The Sunday Tribune. He became editor of Magill in 1982 and left in 1985 to travel widely in Africa and South America. His early publications included collections of his journalism and accounts of his travels in Ireland and abroad.

Colm is the author of nine novels, including ‘Brooklyn’ (2009) and ‘Nora Webster’ (2015) and two collections of stories. He has been three times shortlisted for the Booker Prize for ‘The Blackwater Lightship’ (1999), ‘The Master’ (2005) and ‘The Testament of Mary’ (2012), the play of which was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play in 2013. His other work includes collections of short stories, poetry, many works of non-fiction and editorial works. His writing has been translated into more than thirty languages.

Colm has received honorary doctorates from the University of Ulster, University College Dublin, the University of East Anglia and the Open University. He is currently a contributing editor at the London Review of Books and Mellon Professor of Humanities at Columbia University in New York. He divides his time between his homes in Dublin and New York.

His most recent book, ‘Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know’ was published in 2019.