Publisher's Synopsis
The subjects range from well-known figures like Kate O'Brien or Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, to a host of forgotten or neglected writers, singers or storytellers, and some brought to public notice for the first time. The Dictionary interprets "writers" very broadly, and includes unpublished diaries, journals, and letters, together with plays, documentaries, film-scripts and journalism, cookery books and manuals, as well as fiction and poetry. Many of the Irish language entries relate to contributions to the folk and song traditions rather to more conventional forms of writing. The project has been devised, in part, as a feminist recovery of women's writing, especially over periods when the surrounding society and culture had a distinctly patriarchal character (and women, for example, often wrote under male pen-names or anonymously), but it also offers a rich source work for those interested in local or regional identities, and a wide range of literary issues and figures.;In conjunction with (and profoundly influenced by) the Field-Day Anthology of Irish Writing: Irish Womens' Writing and Traditions, this Dictionary will stimulate further research and inquiry and be an indispensable source book for many decades to come.
