Efacis William Wall is a novelist, poet and short story writer. He is the author of six novels, four collections of poetry and three of short fiction. His work concerns itself with political and social themes – class in Ireland, the family, corruption, the urban/rural divide – as well as personal themes of love, loss and suffering. He is, perhaps, best known for his striking prose, his writing of complex female characters and his long commitment to representing the complexity, internal tensions and destructive forces inherent in the nuclear family in Ireland. In this context his novels, in particular, can be read as a single oeuvre.
Born in Cork, Ireland, he now divides his time between Cork and Liguria, Italy. He is the first European winner of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize (2017) and has toured the US East Coast with the resulting collection of short fiction called The Islands. He holds a PhD in Creative Writing from the School of English, University College Cork, the first such doctorate awarded in Ireland.
‘Wall writes prose so charged – at once lyrical and syncopated – that it’s as if Cavafy had decided to write about a violent Irish household’. — The New Yorker
‘Wall’s touch with characterisation is light and deft: many illustrate themselves plainly with just a few lines of dialogue.’ — The Guardian
‘Wall engages not just with current Irish economic and political crises but Ghost Estate is also a book that explores the larger, darker contexts of our contemporary historical climate.’ — Southword
His 2005 novel This is The Country was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards and the Mind Prize.
His short fiction and poetry have won The Drue Heinz Literature Prize, the Virginia Faulkner Award, The Sean O’Faoláin Prize, several Writer’s Week prizes, The Patrick Kavanagh Award and been shortlisted for numerous others including The Raymond Carver Award, The Manchester Fiction Prize and The Hennessy Prize. He has received Irish Arts Council Bursaries, travel grants from Culture Ireland and translations of his books have been funded by Ireland Literature Exchange. He has received public commissions.
He is not a member of Aosdána for political reasons explained in his essay ‘Riding Against The Lizard’ (see http://williamwall.net/free-books-and-essays.html). His work has been translated into many languages, including Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Latvian, Serbian and Catalan. He has a particular interest in Italy and translates from Italian.
In 2014 he was part of the Italo-Irish Literature Exchange which gave readings at various places in Italy and which led to a joint Italian/Irish set of publications. He was an Irish delegate to the European Writers’ Parliament in Istanbul 2010. He was a 2009 Fellow of The Liguria Centre for the Arts & Humanities. He collaborated with artist Harry Moore to produce the Shadowlands exhibition and book in 2008.
Publications
Novels
Suzy Suzy (New Island, Dublin and Head of Zeus, London, 2019)
Grace’s Day (New Island, Dublin and Head of Zeus, London, August 2018)
This Is The Country (Hodder/Sceptre, London, 2005)
The Map of Tenderness (Hodder/Sceptre, London, 2002)
Minding Children (Hodder/Sceptre, London, 2001)
Alice Falling (Hodder/Sceptre, London/WW Norton, New York, 2000)
Poetry Collections
Smugglers In The Underground Hug Trade (Doire Press, Galway, 2021)
The Yellow House (Salmon Poetry, Clare, 2017)
Ghost Estate (Salmon Poetry, Clare, 2011)
Fahrenheit Says Nothing To Me (Dedalus, Dublin, 2004)
Mathematics & Other Poems (The Collins Press, Cork, 1997)
Short Stories
The Islands (Pittsburgh University Press, USA, 2017)
Hearing Voices/Seeing Things (Doire Press, Galway, 2016) [Collection]
No Paradiso (Brandon Book, Dingle, Kerry, 2006) [Collection]
Essays, Reviews, Translations
Most essays and reviews are available to read online at The Ice Moon (http://williamwall.net/The-Ice-Moon/index.html
Translation blog:
http://williamwall.net/blog/index.html
Email contact: williamwall@gmx.com
Website: www.williamwall.net
Photo credit: Liz Kirwan
