FITZMAURICE, Gabriel 1952-

PERSONAL: Born December 7, 1952, in Moyvane, County Kerry, Ireland; son of John (a grocer) and Maud (a homemaker; maiden name, Cunningham) Fitzmaurice; married Brenda Downey (a primary schoolteacher), August 17, 1991; children: John, Nessa. Education: Mary Immaculate College of Education, primary teaching certificate. Politics: "Sort of a liberal." Religion: Roman Catholic.

ADDRESSES: Home—Applegarth, Moyvane, County Kerry, Ireland. Office—Moyvane National School, Moyvane, County Kerry, Ireland.

CAREER: Irish Department of Education, schoolteacher, beginning 1972. Singer and musician; recorded two albums of music; producer of the album The Songs and Ballads of Kerry; guest on Irish television and radio programs. Writers' Week, Listowel, County Kerry, Ireland, chair, 1982-85, 1991-92.

MEMBER: Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann (past public relations officer for County Kerry branch).

AWARDS, HONORS: Award from Gerard Manley Hopkins Centenary Poetry Competition, 1989.

WRITINGS:

POETRY

Rainsong, Beaver Row Press (Dublin, Ireland), 1984.

Road to the Horizon, Beaver Row Press (Dublin, Ireland), 1987.

Nocht, Coiscéim (Baile Átha Cliath, Ireland), 1989.

Dancing Through, Beaver Row Press (Dublin, Ireland), 1990.

The Father's Part, Story Line Press (Brownsville, OR), 1992.

The Space Between: New and Selected Poems, 1984-1992, Cló Iar-Chonnachta (Indreabhán, Conamara, Ireland), 1993.

Ag síobshiúl chun an rince: dánta, Coiscéim (Baile Átha Cliath, Ireland), 1995.

The Village Sings: Poems, Story Line Press (Brownsville, OR), 1996.

Giolla ne namhrán: dánta nua agus rogha dánta, 1988-1998, Coiscéim (Baile Átha Cliath, Ireland), 1998.

A Wrenboy's Carnival: Poems, 1980-2000, Wolfhound Press (Dublin, Ireland), 2000.

I and the Village, Mercier (Dublin, Ireland), 2002.

FOR CHILDREN

The Moving Stair, Kerryman (Tralee, Ireland), 1989, revised edition, 1993.

(With Gabriel Rosenstock) The Rhino's Specs, Mercier (Dublin, Ireland), 2002.

Also author of Nach Iontach mar atá Rainn do Pháistí, 1994, But Dad!, 1995, Puppy and the Sausage, 1998, and Dear Grandad, 2001.

EDITOR

(With Declan Kiberd) An Crann faoi bhláth—The Flowering Tree: Contemporary Irish Poetry with Verse Translations, Wolfhound Press (Dublin, Ireland), 1991.

Between the Hills and Sea: Songs and Ballads of Kerry, Oidhreacht (Chorca Dhuibhne, County Kerry, Ireland), 1991.

Con Greaney, Traditional Singer, Oidhreacht (Chorca Chuibhne, County Kerry, Ireland), 1991.

An Alternative Anthology of Irish Poetry, Wolfhound Press (Dublin, Ireland), 1992.

Irish Poetry Now: Other Voices, Wolfhound Press (Dublin, Ireland), 1993.

Kerry through Its Writers, New Island Books (Dublin, Ireland), 1993.

The Listowel Literary Phenomenon: North Kerry Writers: A Critical Introduction, Cló Iar-Chonnachta (Indreabhán, Conamara, Ireland), 1994.

(And translator) Poems I Wish I'd Written: Translations from the Irish, Cló Iar-Chonnachta (Indreabhán, Conamara, Ireland), 1996.

(With Robert Dunbar) Rusty Nails and Astronauts: A Wolfhound Poetry Anthology, Wolfhound Press (Dublin, Ireland), 1999.

The Kerry Anthology, Marino (Dublin, Ireland), 2000.

Also editor of Homecoming/An Bealah 'na Bhaile: Selected Poems of Cathal Ó Searcaigh, 1993.

OTHER

(Translator) Michael Hartnett, The Purge, Beaver Row Press (Dublin, Ireland), 1989.

Kerry on my Mind: Of Poets, Pedagogues, and Place (essays), Salmon Publishing (Clare, Ireland), 1999.

Also author, with A. Cronin and J. Looney, of "The Boro" and "The Cross:" The Parish of Moyvane-Knockanure, 2000.

SIDELIGHTS: Gabriel Fitzmaurice once told CA: "I work as a teacher and have gained valuable insights from teaching—and being taught by—the children. I believe that poetry has lost much of its vitality in a maze of literary theory. I seek to give the life of music and rhythm to my poetry without accepting the straitjacket of a new formalism. I see the function of poetry, if indeed poetry has any function, to communicate with the literate reader. To this end I try to make my poetry as simple as my subject matter will allow, and as appealing as possible through my use of language. I do not believe in obscurity for obscurity's sake, believing such pseudo-profundity to be counterproductive. I seek the profound in the ordinary and try to translate that into poetry."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Academic Library Book Review, June, 1994, review of Irish Poetry Now: Other Voices, p. 18.

Booklist, March 15, 1994, Pat Monaghan, review of Irish Poetry Now, p. 1323; August, 1996, Ray Olson, review of The Village Sings, p. 1876; November 15, 2000, Ray Olson, review of A Wrenboy's Carnival: Poems, 1980-2000, p. 604; December 1, 2002, Ray Olson, review of I and the Village, p. 642.

Guardian, December 23, 2000, Giles Foden, review of A Wrenboy's Carnival.

Irish Literary Supplement, fall, 1992, review of The Father's Part, p. 36; spring, 1995, review of Irish Poetry Now, p. 36.

Library Journal, November 1, 1999, Denise J. Stankovics, review of Kerry on My Mind: Of Poets, Pedagogues, and Place, p. 81.

School Librarian, November, 1996, review of The Village Sings, p. 167.

Stand, autumn, 1994, review of Irish Poetry Now, p. 64.

Times Literary Supplement, June 21, 1991, p. 18.

World Literature Today, summer, 1994, Kieran Quinlan, review of Irish Poetry Now, p. 614.*