Thomas McCarthy was born in Co. Waterford in 1954 and educated at University College, Cork. He has published eight collections of poetry, two novels and a memoir. He has won the Patrick Kavanagh Award, the American-Irish Foundation's Literary Award, and the O'Shaughnessy Prize for Poetry. He has worked for Cork City Libraries since 1987. He is a member of Aosdana.
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Reviews
'No other poet comes to mind, living or dead, who has succeeded in engaging the political as poetic subject matter ... McCarthy, it would seem, has been able to internalize the subject matter and given it the time to cool down and clarify, until his art can give it a shape.' August Kleinzahler; 'Pandemonium's urgent, involving and rewarding poems make us question where we have come from and look again at where we are going.' The Irish Times; 'His voice - with its idiosyncratic tone and verbal texture - registered firmly as one of the most distinctive and it is now one of the most authoritative among poets of his generation. The weight of that authority and his mastery of a personal tone are evident in this fine new collection.' Dublin Review of Books