In reviewing Sheila O'Hagan's first collection, The Peacock's Eye, David McDuff (Stand Magazine) writes of her "... striking vivid insights into the present moment, insights that are often underlaid by a sense of life's constant ability to extend beyond the present in the direction of its beginning and its end." The Troubled House shows how O'Hagan has developed this insight with masterly touch. She unveils the many aspects, the many voices of human emotion, the difficulties of remaining oneself while, in the words of Ceslaw Milosz, "Invisible guests come in and go out at will". The Troubled House presents us with a mature voice, a voice that echoes within the heart; calling us to ourselves.
Sheila O'Hagan began writing in 1984 while studying at Birkbeck College, London University. In 1988 she won the Goldsmith Award for Poetry, and in 1990 returned to her native Dublin. In 1991 she won the Patrick Kavanagh Award and in 1992 the Hennessy/Sunday Tribune Award for New Irish Poet of the year. She has twice been awarded First Prize for Poetry at Listowel Writers' Week. She was the winner of the Strokestown International Prize for a single poem in 2000. Her short stories and poems have appeared in, among others, The Adirondack Review, The Sunday Tribune, Syracuse Review and Working Papers in Irish Studies. She has conducted literary workshops in Wormwood Scrubs Prison, UK, in Inter-City Schools, and for three terms in The Writers' Centre, Dublin. She was writer-in-residence for Kildare County Council from 1994 to 1996. In 1990 she conducted radio workshops for prisoners on 98FM. She was editor of the Cork Literary Review from 2005 to 2007. She also edited Under Brigid's Cloak, an anthology of Kildare writers, in 1994. Her three collections are - The Peacock's Eye (1992), The Troubled House (1995) and Along The Liffey: Poems and Short Stories (2009) - are all published by Salmon.
Sheila O'Hagan began writing in 1984 while studying at Birkbeck College, London University. In 1988 she won the Goldsmith Award for Poetry, and in 1990 returned to her native Dublin. In 1991 she won the Patrick Kavanagh Award and in 1992 the Hennessy/Sunday Tribune Award for New Irish Poet of the year. She has twice been awarded First Prize for Poetry at Listowel Writers' Week. She was the winner of the Strokestown International Prize for a single poem in 2000. Her short stories and poems have appeared in, among others, The Adirondack Review, The Sunday Tribune, Syracuse Review and Working Papers in Irish Studies. She has conducted literary workshops in Wormwood Scrubs Prison, UK, in Inter-City Schools, and for three terms in The Writers' Centre, Dublin. She was writer-in-residence for Kildare County Council from 1994 to 1996. In 1990 she conducted radio workshops for prisoners on 98FM. She was editor of the Cork Literary Review from 2005 to 2007. She also edited Under Brigid's Cloak, an anthology of Kildare writers, in 1994. Her three collections are - The Peacock's Eye (1992), The Troubled House (1995) and Along The Liffey: Poems and Short Stories (2009) - are all published by Salmon.