Edna O’Brien
Edna O’Brien was born in Tuamgraney, County Clare. After finishing primary school O’Brien was educated at the Convent of Mercy in Loughrea (1941-46). In Dublin she worked in a pharmacy, and during this period she wrote small pieces for the Irish Press. Married in the summer of 1954, O’Brien moved with her husband, the Czech/Irish writer Ernest Gébler to London. O’Brien has said that Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist made her realize that she wanted literature for the rest of her life.
Since 1964, she has remained in England. O’Brien published her first novel, THE COUNTRY GIRLS, in 1960.
O’Brien has written plays, children’s books, essays, screenplays, and non-fiction about Ireland. She has received several literary awards, including the Kingsley Amis Award for fiction in 1962, the Yorkshire Post Novel Award in 1971, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in 1990 for Lantern Slides.
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