The Arts Council has expressed its sadness at the passing of author and Aosdána member Philip Casey.
Speaking today, Sheila Pratschke, Chair of the Arts Council said: “Equal parts generous and ingenious, Philip Casey dedicated his life to the written word. His poetry collections and his Bann Trilogy of novels will be celebrated and read for years to come; his ground breaking work on behalf of Irish writers and writing will be remembered and treasured.”
Born in London in 1950 to Irish parents, he grew up in Co. Wexford, which featured in much of his work. In 1986 he was the recipient of an Arts Council literature bursary. He published four collections of poetry: Those Distant Summers (1980), After Thunder (1985), and The Year of the Knife: Poems 1980-1990 (1991), all by Raven Arts Press; and Dialogue in Fading Light - New & Selected Poems (New Island Books, 2005). A one-act play, Cardinal, was performed in Hamburg in 1990.
His novels were The Fabulists (Lilliput, 1995), The Water Star (Picador, 1999) and The Fisher Child (Picador, 2001). The Fabulists won the inaugural Kerry Ingredients Book of the Year Award at Listowel Writers' Week in 1995, and was translated into German in 1999. He founded the Irish Writers Online and A Guide to Irish Culture (www.irishcultureguide.com) websites. He lived in Dublin.
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