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Brian Leyden

Irish writer From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Brian Leyden
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Brian Leyden (born 1960) is an Irish writer. He has published three novels, two short story collections and a best selling memoir. He has co-written a script for a feature film, made radio documentaries and is a regular contributor to Sunday Miscellany on RTE Radio 1. In 2021 Brian Leyden was one of the founders of the independent regional imprint Lepus Print. https://www.lepusprint.com/

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Biography

Brian Leyden is from the coal mining valley of  Arigna, County Roscommon,[1] a place and a way of life memorialised in the author's work. He writes fiction and non-fiction in which he holds a Masters in Creative Writing from Lancaster University, (2022)[2] and a PG Diploma in Fine Art (NCEA) (1983).[3] Leyden has been a creative non-fiction mentor with the MFA in Creative Writing at Carlow University Pittsburgh for twenty years.[4] He has worked continuously in the arts, including the positions of Writer in Residence with Leitrim and Sligo Libraries. He has mentored for the NUI Galway BA in Creative Writing program.[5] Reading tours he participated in include Ireland and its Diaspora Writers & Musician's Tour of Germany (1996), Newport Festival Rhode Island, and The Irish Writers' Centre Peregrine Readings (2010)[6] and New York in (2019). Leyden as a writer is very engaged with the relationship between place and the creative calling. He lives on the Atlantic coast of North Sligo with his wife.

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Books

  • Love These Days (2024) novel[7]
  • Summer of ’63 (2016), novel.[8][9][10][11][12]
  • Sweet Old World: New and Selected Stories (2015), short stories.[13][14]
  • Death and Plenty (1996), novel.[15][16]
  • The Home Place (2002) memoir.[16][17]
  • Departures (1992), short stories.[15][16]

Recent Commissions

  • The Sligo Wave, (2024) a writer's response to a major exhibition in the Model Arts centre on the Sligo Landscape tradition from Jack B. Yeats to present day artists.[18]
  • The Sheemore Ambush, (2020) for the Decade of Commemorations (2012–2023) initiative (2022).[19]
  • The Sligo Bus and All That Jazz, (2020) The Hawk's Well Theatre: Come together with writer Brian Leyden and musician Eddie Lee.[20]
  • Walking Bird Mountain, (2018/2019) Creative Ireland, Sligo, and the Factory Theatre multi-media collaborative arts project.[21]
  • Creative Ireland Award script commission for the 'Famine Attic' , (2018) Carrick-On Shannon, Co Leitrim.[22]
  • Old Flames, (2016) A script commission as National Writer in Residence for the Bealtaine Festival, and live performance tour with multi-instrumentalist Seamie O Dowd.[23][24]

Plays

  • Remember Me, (2023) The Hawk's Well Theatre, Sligo.[25]
  • Ink and Lunacy, (1990), The Factory Theatre, Sligo.[26]
  • W.B Yeats: Experiments in Magic, (1989) St John's Church Theatre Listowel, Yeats Society, Co Sligo for the 50th anniversary of the poets death.[27]

Film

  • Black Ice (2013) Premiered at the Jameson Film Festival, Dublin and the Model Sligo, before going to cinemas nationwide.[28][29]

Opera

  • Humpty Dumpty (2010) A libretto for a short opera by contemporary composer Ian Wilson. performed at the Lancaster International Concert Series March (2010).[30]

Editorial Highlights

  • The Cathach Volume II (2010) Sligo Library Services online literary Journal.[31]
  • First Cut Anthology, (2004)[32]
  • Force 10 Literary Journal, Issues 7-8, (1995-1997)[33]

Radio Documentaries

  • The Irish Station Mass (2015)[34]
  • The Closing of the Gaiety Cinema (2004)[35]
  • Even the Walls Were Sweatin' (1997)[36]
  • No Meadows in Manhattan (1991)[37]

Other Radio Highlights

  • BBC 4 Short Story, Departures (1990 and 2000)[38]
  • A Word in Edgeways (2022–2024)[39]

Essays and Anthologies

  • Brian's non-fiction and essays have been broadcast on national radio and widely anthologised. Including Sunday Miscellany: A selection 2018-2023, ed. Sarah Binchy,'[40][41] A Door Opening: Sligo and the Legacies of Partition, eds. Susan McKay and Keith Hopper (2023).[42] Further essays are included in Winter Papers 2, and 8, (2016 and 2022) eds. Kevin Barry and Olivia Smith,[43][44] Maugherow: beneath the blowing sands, ed. Sean Golden, (2022),[45] Fermata: Writings inspired by Music, eds. Eva Bourke and Vincent Woods, (2016),[46] Irlande 66/69 - Guy Jungblut and Jacques Piraprez/Nutan, (2016).[47] His personal essays on other writers appear in Writing the Sky: Observations and Essays on Dermot Healy, ed. Neil Murphy and Keith Hopper, (2016),[48] This Landscape's Fierce Embrace: The Poetry of Francis Harvey, ed. Donna L. Potts (2013).[49] His fiction has been anthologised in Reading the Future: New Writing from Ireland, ed. Alan Hayes (2018)[50] Stories for Jamie, ed. John Scally (2002),[51] The Brandon Book of Irish Short Stories, ed. Steve Mc Donagh (1998),[52] Irish Christmas Stories II, ed. David Marcus (1997)[53] and The Alphabet Garden: European Short Stories, ed. Peter Ayrton (1994).[54]
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Recognitions

  • The Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon "Literary Bursary" (2014) and (2022)[8][55]
  • Culture Ireland Travel Award, USA, (2017)[8]
  • Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, Sound and Vision Award (2014)[8]
  • Sidney Brown Memorial Award (2012)[56] for the musical adaptation Emerald. Music by Denise Wright. Book and lyrics by Chris Burgess. Based on the novel Death and Plenty by Brian Leyden.
  • Sligo County Libraries Writer-in-Residence (2010)[57]
  • Norman Mailer Writers Colony (at Provincetown, MA) Scholarship (2009)[58]
  • Arts Council Travel & Training Award (2009)[59]
  • Jacobs Award for No Meadows in Manhattan (1991).[60]
  • Francis MacManus Short Story Award for The Last Mining Village (1988)[61]
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References

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