Éilís Ní Dhuibhne (born 22 February 1954), also known as Eilis Almquist and Elizabeth O'Hara, is an Irish novelist and short story writer who writes both in Irish and English. She has been shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction, and is a recipient of the Irish PEN Award.

Biography

Ní Dhuibhne was born in Dublin in 1954. She attended University College Dublin (UCD), where she studied Pure English for her BA, did an M Phil in Middle English and Old Irish, and finished in 1982 with a PhD in Folklore She was awarded the UCD Entrance scholarship for English, and two post-graduate scholarships in Folklore. In 1978-9 she studied at the Folklore Institute in the University of Copenhagen while researching her doctoral thesis, and in 1982 was awarded a PhD from the National University of Ireland (NUI). About her time in Denmark, Ní Dhuibhne states that she "kind of discovered feminism there", because it "was more liberal and advanced politically and in terms of feminism". She has worked in the Department of Irish Folklore in UCD, and for many years as a curator in the National Library of Ireland. Also a teacher of Creative Writing, she has been Writer Fellow at Trinity College Dublin and is currently Writer Fellow at UCD. She is a member of Aosdána since 2004, an ambassador for the Irish Writers' Centre, and President of the Folklore of Ireland Society (An Cumann le Béaloideas Éireann). Ní Dhuibhne is the Burns Visiting Scholar at Boston College for the fall 2020 semester. Ní Dhuibhne was married to the Swedish folklorist Bo Almqvist for 30 years until he died suddenly due to a short illness in 2013. She has two children: Ragnar and Olaf. Éilís Ní Dhuibne wrote the memoir Twelve Thousand Days: A Memoir of Love and Loss about her and her late husband's time together, named after the number of days they were married. Further information on Éilís Ní Dhuibhne's work may be found in Rebecca Pelan, ed, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne: Perspectives. Galway, Arlen House, 2009.

Awards

List of works

Produced by Amharclann de hÍde and first performed at the Peacock, Dublin, 1995; Produced by Amharclann de hÍde and first performed at the Samuel Beckett Theatre, Trinity College, in 1996; Produced by the Abbey and performed at the Peacock Theatre, Dublin, in 1998.