Fiction writer, teacher of creative writing, and folklorist. Dr Éilís Ní Dhuibhne is the Burns Scholar for Fall 2020. In addition to her B.A. from University College Dublin in pure English (Old, Middle and Modern), she holds a M.Phil. in Medieval Studies and a Ph.D. in Folklore. Ní Dhuibhne has worked as an Assistant Keeper in the National Library of Ireland, in the Manuscripts Department, and as a lecturer in Creative Writing and Folklore Studies at University College Dublin. Her current folklore research focuses on the early nineteenth-century collector Thomas Crofton Croker and his connection with the Brothers Grimm.
Ní Dhuibhne is widely known as a novelist and short story writer, having published almost thirty novels, collections of stories, plays, or memoirs—most recently Selected Stories (Dalkey Archive Press, 2018) and Twelve Thousand Days (Blackstaff Press, 2019). Forthcoming publications include her seventh collection of short stories, Little Red, and Look! It’s a Woman Writer, a collection of essays by Irish women writers born in the 1950s, which she has edited. (A May 2020 publication of both but has been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.)She writes in both Irish and English. and her books have been widely translated. Ní Dhuibhne’s many literary awards include the Irish PEN Award for an Outstanding Contribution to Irish Literature, The Stuart Parker Award for Drama, the Hennessy Wall of Fame Award, and the Burns Prize for Fiction for her novel The Dancers Dancing, which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction. Her Irish-language books have also received several awards, as have her publications for children. Additionally, she reviews regularly for the Irish Times, and frequently serves as an adjudicator of literary competions, most recently the Dublin International Literature Award 2019.
As well as teaching and writing, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne is active in literary societies. She is an ambassador for the Irish Writers’ Centre, president of the Folklore of Ireland Society, and sits on the board of the Joyce Centre in Dublin, as well as a member of Aosdana, the academy of Irish artists.During her semester at Boston College, she will facilitate a weekly seminar on creative writing, focusing on fiction; continue work on her novel in progress; and carry out research on early Irish folklorists.