William Wall (writer)
| William Wall | |
|---|---|
| Born | 6 July 1955 Cork City, Ireland |
| Occupation | Novelist, poet |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Alma mater | University College Cork |
| Notable works | This Is The Country, Alice Falling, No Paradiso, Mathematics & Other Poems |
| Website | |
| williamwall |
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William "Bill" Wall (born 1955) is an Irish novelist, poet and short story writer. He was born in Cork City in 1955, but grew up in the coastal village of Whitegate. He received his secondary education at the Christian Brothers School in Midleton. He progressed to University College Cork where he graduated in Philosophy and English. He taught as an English and drama teacher at Presentation Brothers College, Cork, where he inspired Cillian Murphy to enter acting.
In 1997, Wall won the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award. He published his first collection of poetry in that year. His first novel, Alice Falling, a dark study of power and abuse in modern-day Ireland, appeared in 2000. He is the author of four novels, two collections of poetry and one of short stories.
In 2005, This Is The Country appeared. A broad attack on politics in "Celtic Tiger" Ireland, as well as a rite of passage novel, it was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards. It can be read as a satirical allegory on corruption, the link between capitalism and liberal democracy exemplified in the 'entrepreneurial' activities of minor drug dealers and gangsters, and reflected in the architecture of business-parks and sink estates. This political writing takes the form of "an insightful and robust social conscience", in the words of academic John Kenny. Dr Kenny also focused on what he saw as Wall's "baneful take on the Irish family, his fundamentally anti-idyllic mood" which has "not entirely endeared Wall to the more misty-eyed among his readers at home or abroad". The political is also in evidence in his second collection of poetry Fahrenheit Says Nothing To Me. He is not a member of Aosdána, the Irish organisation for writers and artists. In 2006, his first collection of short fiction, No Paradiso, appeared.
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