February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
O’Driscoll, originally from Thurles, Co. Tipperary, receives a financial bonus of $15,000 with the award.
The award is given to a writer from England, Ireland, Scotland or Wales for a stay in the United States.
He becomes only the second Irish poet to receive the award in its 34-year history. O’Driscoll’s fellow poet and Irishman Seamus Heaney won it in 1975, and named O’Driscoll’s collection, “Exemplary Damages” as his “Book of the Year” in 2002.
The Academy is an elite organization of writers, composers and artists, founded in 1898 to “foster, assist and sustain an interest in literature, music and the fine arts.”
There are a mere 250 Academy members, all appointed for life, have included luminaries such as the late Saul Bellow.
Australia’s national poet Les Murray is also among O’Driscoll’s admirers. He mentored the Irishman and was the first to publish an O’Driscoll poem.
Other Irish recipients of the award have been Colm T