Michael Harding

Michael Harding (born 1953) is an Irish short-story writer, novelist, and playwright, born in County Cavan. He lives in Leitrim Harding went to St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, initially graduating as a lay graduate. He taught for two years in St Patricks College Cavan, then worked as a social worker in a prison. He returned to Maynooth as a seminarian and was ordained in 1980, after which he went to work in a parish in Fermanagh. He left the priesthood in 1985, then spent seventeen years practising Buddhism. He is married to the sculptor Cathy Carmen (whom he first met in 1984) and they have a daughter Sophia.

He has published three novels: Priest (1986), The Trouble With Sarah Gullion (1988) and Bird in the Snow (2008). He became a member of Aosdana, the National Academy for Creative Artists, in 2000. He was Writer in Association with The National Theatre in 1993, was short listed for the Irish Times Aer Lingus Literature Award in 1989, and was Writer in Residence at Trinity College Dublin in 1999. Harding has received the following awards:

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