Tusks, fins, spines, a hand-carved cave of volcanic tuff. Beyond the sheepscote,
the igneous rocks of the wild goat, the pockmarked privations of the eremitic
desert. A clear spring, a palm tree, a golden cup of lust, an angel with a girdle
and a cross, and turned to dust, wolves, lions, snakes, scorpions, a raven
bearing half a daily loaf. Laid out like a sack on the desert sand, a coenobite,
white haired and thin of bone, weaves mats of rushes. From his mouth, fire,
sulphur, smoke. His breath as coals, a ring of iron through his nose. Beaten
and left unconscious. Afflicted by the wantoness of women, indolence and
boredom he rises to terrify the earth, counts iron as straw and brass as rotten
wood. Upon a silver dish, a lobe-finned fish with lungs and rudimentary feet.
Gerard Beirne was born in Ireland. A Canadian citizen, he has lived in Canada for over thirteen years. He received an MFA in Creative Writing from Eastern Washington University. He is a past recipient of The Sunday Tribune/Hennessy New Irish Writer of the Year award. He was appointed Writer-in-Residence at the University of New Brunswick 2008-2009 and isa Fiction Editor with The Fiddlehead, Canada’s oldest literary magazine.
His collection of poetry Digging My Own Grave was published by Dedalus Press, Dublin. An earlier version won second place in the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award.
His collection Games of Chance: A Gambler’s Manual is forthcoming form Oberon this Fall (2011).
His novel The Eskimo in the Net (Marion Boyars Publishers, London, 2003) was shortlisted for the prestigious Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award 2004 for the best book of Irish fiction and was selected by the Literary Editor of the Daily Express (England) as his book of the year “scandalously ignored by the Man Booker judges…”. His most recent novel Turtle was published by Oberon Press, 2009.
His short story Sightings of Bono was adapted into a short film featuring Bono (U2) by Parallel Productions, Ireland in 2001 and released on DVD in 2004.
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http://gerardbeirneturtle.blogspot.com/
http://www.gerardbeirne.com
