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Speaking of Stories transforming
short stories from the page to the stage
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EDNA O'BRIEN Edna O'Brien, born 1932 in Tuamgraney, Co. Clare, Ireland is an Irish novelist, short story writer, playwright and screenwriter, known as a pioneer for her frank portrayals of women. She has written 13 novels, five collections of short stories and several plays and screenplays. Her writing is lyrical and intense with passion and longing. The influence of her Catholic upbringing is apparent in much of her work, which depicts both Irish village life during the 1940's and 1950's and contemporary urban settings. Her frank portrayals of female sexuality have drawn both praise and criticism, and have caused her books to be banned in Ireland. O'Brien's first novel, The Country Girls (1960), was an immediate success and began a trilogy that continued with The Lonely Girl (1962), and Girls in Their Married Bliss (1964), along with A Pagan Place (1970), Mother Ireland (1976), and The High Road (1988). The House of Splendid Isolation (1994) examined political and personal hatreds against the backdrop of the I.R.A.'s campaign to drive the British from Northern Ireland. Her short story collections include Returning (1982), Fanatic Heart (1985), and Lantern Slides (1990). Her latest novel, Down by the River, about incest in an Irish family, will be published in May. |