Brian Leyden

Brian Leyden (born 1960) is an Irish writer from Arigna, County Roscommon and currently living in County Sligo. He has published the best selling memoir The Home Place,[1] the short story collection Departures,[2] and the novel Death and Plenty.[3] He won the RTÉ Radio 1 Francis MacManus Award in 1988 for The Last Mining Village. He has written extensively about his home area for RTÉ's Sunday Miscellany and the Doc on One: No Meadows in Manhattan,[4] Even the Walls Were Sweatin’ , The Closing of the Gaiety Cinema in Carrick-on-Shannon[5] and Practical Rooms and Pre-Fabs. He co-wrote the original screenplay for the feature film Black Ice,[6] which premiered at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2013.[7]

Brian Leyden
BornArigna, County Roscommon, Ireland
OccupationNovelist, short story writer, screenwriter, documentarian, editor, and mentor
LanguageEnglish
NationalityIrish
EducationFine Arts
Notable workThe Home Place

Early and Working Life

Brian Leyden grew up in the coal mining valley of Arigna, a place and a way of life memorialised in his writing.

He was educated in Drumshanbo Vocational School (1978) and graduated from Sligo RTC with a Diploma in Fine Art (1983).

Since working his way through college with the Sligo VEC & Arts Council of Ireland funded Murals in Schools Scheme, he has worked continuously in the arts, including the positions of Writer in Residence with Leitrim and Sligo Libraries, mentoring for the NUI Galway BA in Creative Writing program, and the Carlow University, Pittsburgh, PA MFA Irish Residential program.[8] Reading tours include Ireland and its Diaspora Writers & Musician’s Tour of Germany (1996), Newport Festival Rhode Island, and The Irish Writers' Centre Peregrine Readings (2010).[9] His libretto for the short opera Humpty Dumpty by Ian Wilson [10] premiered at the Lancaster International Concert Series at Lancaster University, England in 2010.

Works
  • 1. Departures (1992), short stories.[11][12]
  • 2. Death and Plenty (1996), novel.[13][14]
  • 3. The Home Place (2002) memoir.[15][16]
  • 4. Sweet Old New World: New and Selected Stories (2015), short stories.[17][18]
  • 5. Summer of ’63 (2016), novel.[19][20][21][22][23]

Awards
  • Francis MacManus Short Story Award for The Last Mining Village (1988) [24]
  • Jacobs Award for No Meadows in Manhattan (1991).[25]
  • Arts Council Bursary in Literature (1994).
  • Heinrich Böll Cottage Residency (1998),
  • Arts Council Writer in Residence ‘Leitrim’ (2000).
  • Norman Mailer Writers Colony (at Provincetown, MA) Scholarship (2009) [26]
  • Arts Council Travel & Training Award (2009) [27]
  • Sligo County Libraries Writer-in-Residence (2010) [28]
  • Sidney Brown Memorial Award (2012) [29] 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.
  • Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, Sound and Vision Award (2014) [30]
  • The Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon "Literary Bursary" (2014) [31]
  • Culture Ireland Travel Award, USA, (2017) [32]

References
  1. The Home Place by Brian Leyden - https://www.amazon.com/dp/1482336057
  2. Departures by Brian Leyden - https://www.amazon.com/dp/0863221548
  3. Death and Plenty by Brian Leyden - https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001K7TQV6
  4. No Meadows in Manhattan RTÉ recording - http://www.rte.ie/radio1/doconone/no-meadows-in-manhattan-radio-documentary.html
  5. The Closing of the Gaiety Cinema in Carrick-on-Shannon RTÉ recording - http://www.rte.ie/radio1/doconone/carrickgaiety.html
  6. Black Ice on IMDB - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2606788/
  7. Black Ice Jameson Dublin International Film Festival - http://www.iftn.ie/news/?act1=record&only=1&aid=73&rid=4286267&tpl=archnews&force=1
  8. Carlow University, Pittsburgh, United States; Creative Writing Resident - http://www.carlow.edu/Creative_Writing_Residencies_.aspx
  9. Brian Leyden at the Irish Writers' Centre Peregrine Readings -
  10. Humpty Dumpty by Ian Wilson with text by Brian Leyden - "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 15 March 2014. Retrieved 11 November 2013.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  11. https://www.irishtimes.com/news/biography-brian-leyden-1.282239
  12. http://www.sligoarts.ie/ArtistProfiles/Literature/BrianLeyden/
  13. https://www.irishtimes.com/news/biography-brian-leyden-1.282239
  14. http://www.sligoarts.ie/ArtistProfiles/Literature/BrianLeyden/
  15. http://www.sligoarts.ie/ArtistProfiles/Literature/BrianLeyden/
  16. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Home-Place-Brian-Leyden-ebook/dp/B00BLJG8WI/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
  17. https://irishwriterscentre.ie/products/writing-for-radio-with-brian-leyden
  18. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sweet-Old-World-Selected-Stories/dp/1508415609/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
  19. https://www.hawkswell.com/events/event/brian-leyden-on-writing
  20. https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/an-ageless-pleasure-a-bealtaine-diary-by-brian-leyden-1.2694684
  21. http://www.roscommonpeople.ie/lifestyle/51-lifestyle/castlecoote-fiction-fans-warmed-by-summer-of-63
  22. http://www.lepusprint.com/brian-leyden-reading-summer-63/
  23. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Summer-63-Brian-Leyden/dp/1530961262/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
  24. Brian Leyden receiving the Francis McManus RTÉ Radio Short Story award -
  25. No Meadows in Mahattan - "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 12 November 2013. Retrieved 8 November 2013.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  26. 2009 Irish Times article by Brian Leyden In the Steps of Mailer - http://onclosereading.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Irish-times-7-18-09.pdf%5B%5D
  27. Arts Council funding report April–May 2009 - http://www.artscouncil.ie//en/we_funded.aspx?fid=5b99f00f-1c14-4545-b363-85e62e50bf44&yyyy=2009
  28. Sligo County Libraries Writer-in-Residence - "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 4 June 2013. Retrieved 8 November 2013.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  29. Sidney Brown Memorial The S & S Award 2012 - "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 24 September 2014. Retrieved 8 November 2013.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  30. https://www.hawkswell.com/events/event/brian-leyden-on-writing
  31. https://www.hawkswell.com/events/event/brian-leyden-on-writing
  32. https://www.hawkswell.com/events/event/brian-leyden-on-writing
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