Irish Writers Online / Author
John Banville
John Banville was born in Wexford in 1945. His novels are
Long Lankin (nine short stories and the novella, The Possessed, London, Secker & Warburg, 1970); Nightspawn (Secker & Warburg, New York/ WW Norton, 1971); Birchwood (Secker & Warburg/WW Norton, 1973); Dr Copernicus (London, Martin Secker & Warburg, 1976); Kepler (Martin Secker & Warburg, 1981); The Newton Letter (Martin Secker & Warburg, 1982/ Boston, David R. Godine, 1987); Mephisto (Martin Secker & Warburg, 1986/ David R.Godine, 1989); The Book of Evidence (Martin Secker & Warburg, 1989/ New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1989); Ghosts (London, Secker & Warburg, 1993); Athena(Secker & Warburg, 1995); The Untouchable (London, Picador, 1998); Eclipse (Picador, 2000); and The Sea (Picador, 2005).
His two trilogies have been published as single volumes - The Revolutions Trilogy: Doctor Copernicus, Kepler, Newton Letter - An Interlude; (Picador, 2000); and Frames: Book of Evidence, Ghosts, Athena (Picador 2001).
He has also published a play, The Broken Jug (Loughcrew, Co Meath, The Gallery Press, 1987), which was performed in the Abbey Theatre, Peacock stage, in 1987; and God’s Gift: A Version of Amphitryon by Heinrich Von Kleist (The Gallery Press, 2000). He has also published Prague Pictures: a Portrait of a City (London, Bloomsbury, 2003).
He has received many awards, including The Allied Irish Banks Prize, and the Macauley Fellowship, for Birchwood (1973); The American-Irish Foundation Literary Award (1976); The James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Copernicus (1976); The Guardian Prize for Fiction for Kepler (1981), and the Guinness Peat Aviation Award for The Book of Evidence (1989), for which he was also shortlisted for The Booker Prize. He won the 2005 Man Booker Prize for The Sea.
The Newton Letter was filmed by Channel Four in Britain.
He lives in Dublin.
