OʼConnor

Joseph O'Connor is an Irish novelist, screenwriter, playwright, journalist, broadcaster, poet, and professor of creative writing. Born in Dublin in 1963, O'Connor studied at University College Dublin, Oxford University, and the University of Leeds. He lived in London and New York before returning to Dublin in the 1990s. As of 2020, he is the author of nine novels, including Cowboys and Indians (1991), Desperadoes (1994), The Salesman (1998), Inishowen (2001), Star of the Sea (2002), Redemption Falls (2007), Ghost Light (2010), The Thrill of It All (2014), and Shadowplay (2019). He has also written numerous nonfiction works, screenplays, short stories, stage and radio plays, spoken word pieces, and radio diaries. He is a regular contributor to Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) and has worked as a concept developer and lyrics writer for Heartbeat of Home (2013), an international dance show, as well as adapted Daphne Du Maurier's novel My Cousin Rachel for the stage (2012). O'Connor teaches creative writing and was appointed Frank McCourt Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Limerick in 2014. He has also been the Harman Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at Baruch College, City University of New York, and founded the Frank McCourt Creative Writing Summer School at New York University. O'Connor has received a number of major literary awards, including the Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Achievement in Literature, the Prix Zepter for European Novel of the Year, France's Prix Millepages, Italy's Premio Acerbi, and an American Library Association Award, among others. He is a member of the Irish artists' association Aosdána. O'Connor is married to Anne-Marie Casey, a novelist, screenwriter, playwright, and TV producer, with whom he has two children.