MICHAEL O'DEA was born in Roscommon in 1955. A graduate of University College, Galway, he now lives and teaches in Dublin. He was short-listed for the Hennessy / Sunday Tribune awards in 1994, and shortlisted inthe Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Competition for an unpublished first collection the same year. With the Dedalus Press he has published two collections of poetry, Sunfire (1997) and Turn Your Head (2003).

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY
"...an assured debut by a poet with a fast growing reputation... O'Dea's poems are always challenging, always a delight to read and resonate in the memory for a long time afterwards."
—Christopher O'Rourke, InCognito

"Michael O'Dea is a keen observer of both country and city life. His sympathetic understanding of, for example, old people and children is tempered by detachment. His images are not only vivid but unusually convincing. He comes up at times with a quirky, muted surrealism."
—Pearse Hutchinson

"The terrible eloquence of these imagined testaments captures infinite loss and bears quiet witness to human suffering and to enduring dignity and hope."
— Vincent Woods

"Metaphor sustains diction and tone, rather than imposing some 'important message' on the imagery. This is likeable poetry, sometimes cryptic, sometimes expansive, meeting each subject more or less on its own terms"
— James J McAuley, The Irish Times