Fred Johnston

Fred Johnston was born in Belfast in 1951. Most recently, his poems have appeared in The Spectator, The New Statesman, and a short story in Stand magazine; some more new work is also due to appear there. In 1972, he received a Hennessy Literary Award for prose. In the mid-Seventies, with Neil Jordan and Peter Sheridan, he co-founded The Irish Writers’ Co-operative (Co-Op Books.) In 2002, he was a co-recipient of the Prix de l’Ambassade, Ireland. His most recent collection of short stories, Dancing In The Asylum, was published by Parthian.  In 1986, he founded Galway’s annual literature festival, Cúirt; in 2002, he was writer-in-residence to the Princess Grace Irish Library at Monaco. Fred has published nine collections of poems, four novels and two collections of short stories, one of which has been translated into French. He has also composed poetry in French and published it in France in magazines such as Ouste, Hopala!, Le Moulin de Poésie and Le Grognard, among others.