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 Documentary 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
Born1960 (age 62–63)
Arigna, County Roscommon, Ireland
OccupationNovelist, short story writer, screenwriter, documentarian, editor, 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

Awards
  • Francis MacManus Short Story Award for The Last Mining Village (1988) [21]
  • Jacobs Award for No Meadows in Manhattan (1991).[22]
  • 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) [23]
  • Arts Council Travel & Training Award (2009) [24]
  • Sligo County Libraries Writer-in-Residence (2010) [25]
  • Sidney Brown Memorial Award (2012) [26] 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) [16]
  • The Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon "Literary Bursary" (2014) [16]
  • Culture Ireland Travel Award, USA, (2017) [16]

References
  1. Leyden, Brian (21 February 2013). The Home Place. ISBN 978-1482336054.
  2. Leyden, Brian (1992). Departures. ISBN 978-0863221545.
  3. Leyden, Brian (1996). Death and Plenty. ISBN 978-0863222184.
  4. "No Meadows in Manhattan". Doc on One. RTÉ. Archived from the original on 12 November 2013. Retrieved 8 November 2013.
  5. "The Closing of the Gaiety Cinema in Carrick-on-Shannon". RTÉ. Archived from the original on 12 November 2013. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
  6. "Black Ice". IMDb. Archived from the original on 12 February 2017. Retrieved 30 June 2018.
  7. "Black Ice at Jameson Dublin International Film Festival". Irish Film and Television Network. Archived from the original on 12 November 2013. Retrieved 8 November 2013.
  8. "Creative Writing Resident". Carlow University. Pittsburgh, United States.
  9. "Peregrine Readings". Irish Writers' Centre. Archived from the original on 12 November 2013.
  10. "Humpty Dumpty by Ian Wilson with text by Brian Leyden". ianwilson.org.uk. Archived from the original on 15 March 2014. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
  11. "Biography: Brian Leyden". The Irish Times. Dublin. 17 February 2001. ISSN 0791-5144. Archived from the original on 10 September 2018. Retrieved 9 September 2018.
  12. "Brian Leyden". Sligo Arts Service. Archived from the original on 14 November 2017. Retrieved 9 September 2018.
  13. Leyden, Brian (21 February 2013). The Home Place. ISBN 978-1482336054.
  14. "Writing for radio, with Brian Leyden". Irish Writers Centre. Archived from the original on 10 September 2018. Retrieved 9 September 2018.
  15. Leyden, Brian (9 February 2015). Sweet Old World: New & Selected Stories. ISBN 978-1508415602.
  16. "Brian Leyden: On Writing". Hawk's Well Theatre. Sligo. Archived from the original on 10 September 2018. Retrieved 9 September 2018.
  17. Leyden, Brian (22 June 2016). "An ageless pleasure: A Bealtaine diary by Brian Leyden". The Irish Times. Dublin. ISSN 0791-5144. Archived from the original on 28 June 2016. Retrieved 9 September 2018.
  18. Dooner, Dan (16 February 2017). "Castlecoote fiction fans warmed by 'Summer of '63'". Roscommon People. Archived from the original on 10 September 2018. Retrieved 9 September 2018.
  19. "Brian Leyden reading from Summer of". Lepus Print. Archived from the original on 10 September 2018. Retrieved 9 September 2018.
  20. Leyden, Brian (2016). Summer of '63. ISBN 978-1530961269.
  21. "The Leyden File". Sligo Champion. 12 November 2013. Archived from the original on 12 November 2013.
  22. "No Meadows in Mahattan". RTÉ.ie. Archived from the original on 12 November 2013. Retrieved 8 November 2013.
  23. Leyden, Brian (18 July 2009). "In the Steps of Mailer". The Irish Times. Dublin. ISSN 0791-5144.
  24. "Who we funded". Arts Council of Ireland. April–May 2009. Archived from the original on 4 May 2022. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  25. "Writer-in-Residence". Sligo County Libraries. Archived from the original on 4 June 2013. Retrieved 8 November 2013.
  26. "Emerald #124; The S and S Award". Sidney Brown Memorial Award. 2012. Archived from the original on 24 September 2014. Retrieved 8 November 2013.
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