Maura Dooley (born 18 May 1957) is a British poet and writer. She has published five collections of poetry and edited several anthologies. She is the winner of the Eric Gregory Award in 1987 and the Cholmondeley Award in 2016, and was shortlisted for the Forward Poetry Prize (single poem) in 1997 and again in 2015.^[1][2][3] Her poetry collections Life Under Water (2008) and Kissing A Bone (1996) were shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize.^[3]

Biography

Maura Dooley was born on 18 May 1957 in Truro, Cornwall, England,, to Irish parents and grew up in Bristol.^[3][2] Her two brothers, Terence and Timothy, are writers too.^[4] She obtained a BA (Hons) degree from the University of York in 1978 and attended the University of Bristol from 1980 to 1981.^{[3] [5]}

She was the director of the writing centre at the Arvon Foundation in Yorkshire from 1982 to 1987. From 1987 to 1993, Dooley served as programme director of literature for the Southbank Centre in London. In the 1990s, she helped develop family films for Jim Henson Productions and developed a theatre workshop for Performing Arts Labs. Dooley is currently Professor of Creative Writing at Goldsmiths, University of London.^[6]

Dooley has been a judge for the T. S. Eliot Prize, the National Poetry Competition, the Forward Prize and the London Arts New London Writers Awards.^[3]

Poetry collections

• The Silvering (2016)
• Life under Water (2008)
• Sound Barrier (2002)
• Kissing a Bone (1996)
• Explaining Magnetism (1991)

Other publications

• Dooley, Maura, ed. (2003). Honey Gatherers: A Book of Love Poems. Bloodaxe Books. p. 320. ISBN 978-1852243593. Archived from the original on 12 May 2022.
• Dooley, Maura, ed. (1997). Making for Planet Alice: New Women Poets. Seren Books. p. 176. ISBN 978-1854111920.
• Dooley, Maura; Curtis, Tony, eds. (2007). How Novelists Work. Bloodaxe Books. pp. 110. ISBN 978-1852243982.
• Ghahreman, Azita (2018), Negative of a Group Photograph (trans. Maura Dooley; Elhum Shakerifar), The Poetry Translation Centre / Bloodaxe Books. ISBN 9781780374369

Awards

• 1987: Eric Gregory Award^[1]
• 2016: Cholmondeley Award^[7]