Egan was born in
Athlone in the Irish midlands. His parents were Thomas Egan, businessman and National School teacher Kathleen Garland. He attended
St Finian's College in
Mullingar, then University at
St Patrick's College, Maynooth (now Maynooth University), where he obtained his BA (1962), and
University College Dublin, where he obtained his MA (1965). He returned to his old school St Finian’s (1965-1971) to teach Greek, then taught English at
Newbridge College, County Kildare. He settled in
Newbridge and gave up teaching in 1987 to focus on writing as a career. He is married to the writer
Vivienne Abbot.[8] They have two daughters, Kate and Bebhin. Egan is fluent in Irish and speaks/reads French, German and Spanish. Also proficient in Classical Greek.
Collections
1972. Midland, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press. With drawings by Brian Bourke
1972. Poiemata, Readings in Poetry and Prose for Young People, chosen by Egan, Rice. Dublin: Fallons
1973 Choice, An anthology of Irish poetry selected by the poets themselves. Edited by Desmond Egan and Michael Hartnett, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press
1974 Leaves, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press. With drawings by Charles Cullen
1976 Siege, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press
1978 Woodcutter, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press. Illustrations by Alberto Giacometti
1980 Athlone?, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press. With photographs by Fergus Bourke
1983 Seeing Double, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press. With illustrations by
Alex Sadkowsky
1983 Collected Poems, Orono, Maine, NPF. Winner of The National Poetry Foundation of USA Award
1989 A Song for my Father, Newbridge, Ireland: The Kavanagh Press
1990 The Death of Metaphor, essays, Gerrard's Cross, England: Colin Smythe
1991 Medea, translation of Euripides. St. Andrew's Press, Laurinburg, USA
1992 Peninsula, Poems of the Dingle Peninsula. Newbridge, Ireland: The Kavanagh Press. With Photographs by Liam Lyons
1992 Snapdragon, Little Rock, Arkansas: Milestone Press
1992 Selected Poems, Omaha, Nebraska: Creighton University Press. Selected and with Introduction by Hugh Kenner
1994 Poems for Eimear, Limited Edition. Little Rock, Arkansas. Milestone Press
1994 In the Holocaust of Autumn A sequence in nine parts; Foreword by Ben Briscoe. Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press
1995 Elegies, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press
1997 Famine, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press. With drawings by James McKenna
1998 Philoctetes, translation of Sophocles. Little Rock, Arkansas: Milestone Press, USA
1999 Prelude: A Sequence of Poems for Hans Pålsson, Pianist. Limited ed., Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press
2000 Music, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press
2001 The Hill of Allen, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press. With drawings by James McKenna
2005 The Outdoor Light, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press
2009 The Bronze Horseman, Essays, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press
2012 Hopkins in Kildare, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press
2015 Epic, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press
2017 Hopeful Hopkins, Essays, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press
Anthologies
Eva Hesse, Lyrik Importe, ein Lesebuch, Aachen: Rimbuad, 2004
Hunderose: Neue Irische Gedichte, Augsburg: Maroverlag, 1983
2005: Ouessant (France) International Literary Award
2010: Arpino (Italy): Il Libro di Pietra plaque
2012: Newbridge Town Culture Award
2015: Kildare County Council Literature Award
2015: IBAM, Irish Books and Media (Chicago) Award for Literature
Offices held
Founder and Artistic Director, The Gerard Manley Hopkins International Festival, Newbridge College: 1987 to present
Juror The Neustadt International Literature Award University of Oklahoma 1999
Cultural Relations Committee, Dept. of Foreign Affairs 2000 - 2003; 2003 - 2006
Hon. President, The Classical Society of Ireland, 2004
Further reading
Arkins, Brian, Desmond Egan: A Critical Study Milestone Press, Little Rock, USA, 1992.
Kenner, Hugh, ed., Desmond Egan: The Poet and His Work. Northern Lights, Maine, USA,1990.
Kunio Shimane,The Language of Now: Three Poems of Desmond Egan Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, Vol. 91, No. 364 (Winter, 2002), pp. 390–398.
Interview with Anthony Roche: Irish Literary Supplement, Volume 8, Number 2, 1 September 1989.
The Oxford Companion to Irish Literature, Oxford, 1996
The Influential Irish, Dublin, 2006
The Gill Encyclopaedia of Ireland
Modern Irish Writers: a Biography
Modern Irish Lives
Dictionary of Irish Literature
Who’s Who in Ireland
Adamson, William, Epic, Studies,2019
Conference lecturer/reader
USA
Ezra Pound Conferences
TS Eliot Conference;
Patrick Kavanagh Conference
American Conferences on Irish Studies
I.A.S.I.L. Conference etc.
Italy
Sardinia
France
UK
Germany
Spain
Macedonia
Belgium
Croatia
Nicaragua
Austria
South Korea
China
Japan
Sweden
Ireland: W.B. Yeats Conference First Creative Writing Director
Patrick Kavanagh Weekend
UCD First Poet in Residence; Lecture series
Galway Classical Conference
John Broderick Weekend, Athlone
Ireland Classical Society Presidential Lecture
NUI Maynooth French and English Groups; IASIL Conference
The Hopkins Festival
Michael Hartnett Weekend, Dublin
Gerard Manley Hopkins Festivals
Selected articles
The Book of Kells Art and Antiques USA c.1990
Peter Connolly The Furrow
The Dominicans of Galway Yearbook, 1991
Patrick Kavanagh in P.K. Man and Poet USA 1991
Happy Hopkins Studies, winter 2012
Art and Illness 2nd World Humanities Forum Proceedings 2012
Gabriel Marcel Kansas Journal 2019
Essays / reviews
Various Countries incl. USA, UK, France, Germany, Ireland
Egan was born in
Athlone in the Irish midlands. His parents were Thomas Egan, businessman and National School teacher Kathleen Garland. He attended
St Finian's College in
Mullingar, then University at
St Patrick's College, Maynooth (now Maynooth University), where he obtained his BA (1962), and
University College Dublin, where he obtained his MA (1965). He returned to his old school St Finian’s (1965-1971) to teach Greek, then taught English at
Newbridge College, County Kildare. He settled in
Newbridge and gave up teaching in 1987 to focus on writing as a career. He is married to the writer
Vivienne Abbot.[8] They have two daughters, Kate and Bebhin. Egan is fluent in Irish and speaks/reads French, German and Spanish. Also proficient in Classical Greek.
Collections
1972. Midland, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press. With drawings by Brian Bourke
1972. Poiemata, Readings in Poetry and Prose for Young People, chosen by Egan, Rice. Dublin: Fallons
1973 Choice, An anthology of Irish poetry selected by the poets themselves. Edited by Desmond Egan and Michael Hartnett, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press
1974 Leaves, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press. With drawings by Charles Cullen
1976 Siege, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press
1978 Woodcutter, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press. Illustrations by Alberto Giacometti
1980 Athlone?, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press. With photographs by Fergus Bourke
1983 Seeing Double, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press. With illustrations by
Alex Sadkowsky
1983 Collected Poems, Orono, Maine, NPF. Winner of The National Poetry Foundation of USA Award
1989 A Song for my Father, Newbridge, Ireland: The Kavanagh Press
1990 The Death of Metaphor, essays, Gerrard's Cross, England: Colin Smythe
1991 Medea, translation of Euripides. St. Andrew's Press, Laurinburg, USA
1992 Peninsula, Poems of the Dingle Peninsula. Newbridge, Ireland: The Kavanagh Press. With Photographs by Liam Lyons
1992 Snapdragon, Little Rock, Arkansas: Milestone Press
1992 Selected Poems, Omaha, Nebraska: Creighton University Press. Selected and with Introduction by Hugh Kenner
1994 Poems for Eimear, Limited Edition. Little Rock, Arkansas. Milestone Press
1994 In the Holocaust of Autumn A sequence in nine parts; Foreword by Ben Briscoe. Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press
1995 Elegies, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press
1997 Famine, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press. With drawings by James McKenna
1998 Philoctetes, translation of Sophocles. Little Rock, Arkansas: Milestone Press, USA
1999 Prelude: A Sequence of Poems for Hans Pålsson, Pianist. Limited ed., Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press
2000 Music, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press
2001 The Hill of Allen, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press. With drawings by James McKenna
2005 The Outdoor Light, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press
2009 The Bronze Horseman, Essays, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press
2012 Hopkins in Kildare, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press
2015 Epic, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press
2017 Hopeful Hopkins, Essays, Newbridge, Ireland: The Goldsmith Press
Anthologies
Eva Hesse, Lyrik Importe, ein Lesebuch, Aachen: Rimbuad, 2004
Hunderose: Neue Irische Gedichte, Augsburg: Maroverlag, 1983
2005: Ouessant (France) International Literary Award
2010: Arpino (Italy): Il Libro di Pietra plaque
2012: Newbridge Town Culture Award
2015: Kildare County Council Literature Award
2015: IBAM, Irish Books and Media (Chicago) Award for Literature
Offices held
Founder and Artistic Director, The Gerard Manley Hopkins International Festival, Newbridge College: 1987 to present
Juror The Neustadt International Literature Award University of Oklahoma 1999
Cultural Relations Committee, Dept. of Foreign Affairs 2000 - 2003; 2003 - 2006
Hon. President, The Classical Society of Ireland, 2004
Further reading
Arkins, Brian, Desmond Egan: A Critical Study Milestone Press, Little Rock, USA, 1992.
Kenner, Hugh, ed., Desmond Egan: The Poet and His Work. Northern Lights, Maine, USA,1990.
Kunio Shimane,The Language of Now: Three Poems of Desmond Egan Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, Vol. 91, No. 364 (Winter, 2002), pp. 390–398.
Interview with Anthony Roche: Irish Literary Supplement, Volume 8, Number 2, 1 September 1989.
The Oxford Companion to Irish Literature, Oxford, 1996
The Influential Irish, Dublin, 2006
The Gill Encyclopaedia of Ireland
Modern Irish Writers: a Biography
Modern Irish Lives
Dictionary of Irish Literature
Who’s Who in Ireland
Adamson, William, Epic, Studies,2019
Conference lecturer/reader
USA
Ezra Pound Conferences
TS Eliot Conference;
Patrick Kavanagh Conference
American Conferences on Irish Studies
I.A.S.I.L. Conference etc.
Italy
Sardinia
France
UK
Germany
Spain
Macedonia
Belgium
Croatia
Nicaragua
Austria
South Korea
China
Japan
Sweden
Ireland: W.B. Yeats Conference First Creative Writing Director
Patrick Kavanagh Weekend
UCD First Poet in Residence; Lecture series
Galway Classical Conference
John Broderick Weekend, Athlone
Ireland Classical Society Presidential Lecture
NUI Maynooth French and English Groups; IASIL Conference
The Hopkins Festival
Michael Hartnett Weekend, Dublin
Gerard Manley Hopkins Festivals
Selected articles
The Book of Kells Art and Antiques USA c.1990
Peter Connolly The Furrow
The Dominicans of Galway Yearbook, 1991
Patrick Kavanagh in P.K. Man and Poet USA 1991
Happy Hopkins Studies, winter 2012
Art and Illness 2nd World Humanities Forum Proceedings 2012
Gabriel Marcel Kansas Journal 2019
Essays / reviews
Various Countries incl. USA, UK, France, Germany, Ireland