Theo Dorgan

• Name — Theo Dorgan • Born — 1953 • Birthplace — Cork, Ireland • Occupation — Poet • Period — 1960s–present • Education — University College Cork

Dorgan was born in Cork in 1953 being the eldest child in a family of eight boys and eight girls born to parents Bertie and Rose Dorgan (Nee Myers), and was educated in North Monastery School. He completed a BA in English and philosophy and a MA in English at University College Cork, after which he tutored and lectured at that university, while simultaneously being literature officer at the Triskel Arts Centre in Cork. He was visiting faculty at the University of Southern Maine. He lives in Dublin with his wife, the poet and playwright Paula Meehan.

After Dorgan's first two poetry collections, The Ordinary House of Love and Rosa Mundi, went out of print, Dedalus Press reissued these two titles in a single volume What This Earth Cost Us. He has also published selected poems in Italian, La Case ai Margini del Mundo, (Faenza, Moby Dick, 1999). He has edited The Great Book of Ireland (with Gene Lambert, 1991); Revising the Rising (with Máirín Ní Dhonnachadha, 1991); Irish Poetry Since Kavanagh (Dublin, Four Courts Press, 1996); Watching the River Flow (with Noel Duffy, Dublin, Poetry Ireland/Éigse Éireann, 1999); The Great Book of Gaelic (with Malcolm Maclean, Edinburgh, Canongate, 2002); and The Book of Uncommon Prayer (Dublin, Penguin Ireland, 2007). He has been the series editor of the European Poetry Translation Network publications and director of the collective translation seminars from which the books arose. A former director of Poetry Ireland (Éigse Éireann), Dorgan has worked as a broadcaster of literary programmes on both radio and television. He was the presenter of Poetry Now on RTÉ Radio 1, and later for RTÉ Television's books programme, Imprint. He was the scriptwriter for the television documentary series Hidden Treasures. His Jason and the Argonauts, set to music by Howard Goodall, was commissioned by and premiered at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 2004. A series of text pieces by Dorgan feature in the dance musical Riverdance; he was specially commissioned to create them for the theatrical show. His songs have been recorded by a number of musicians, including Alan Stivell, Jimmy Crowley and Cormac Breathnach.

• The ordinary house of love, Salmon Pub., 1990, • Rosa Mundi, Salmon poetry, 1995, • La casa ai margini del mondo., Translated by M. Giosa, Mobydick, 1998, • Sappho's Daughter, Wave Train Press, 1998, • La Hija de Safo, Translated by Francisco Castaño, Hiperión Ediciones, 2001, • What This Earth Cost Us, Dedalus Press, 2008, • Greek, Dedalus Press, 2010, • Making Way, New Island Books, 2013, • Nine Bright Shiners, Dedalus Press, 2014, • Orpheus, Dedalus Press, 2018, • Bailéid Giofógacha, Coiscéim, 2019

• Sailing for home: a voyage from Antigua to Kinsale, Penguin Ireland, 2004; Penguin Ireland, 2005; Dedalus Press, 2010, • Time on the Ocean: A Voyage From Cape Horn to Cape Town, New Island Books, 2010, • Editor * • Preghiere non-comuni, Armenia (1 January 2009)

• Songs of earth and light, Barbara Korun, Southword Editions, 2005,