Colm Tóibín

Short biography of Colm Toibin

CONTEMPORARY IRISH AUTHORS - Colm Toibin

Colm Toibin (b. 1955)

"He drew a large L and then put the pen at the top of the vertical line. 'This,' he said, 'is the state of your health now.' Then he slowly drew the declining graph until it hit the edge of the bottom line. 'This,' he said, 'is the way things are going to go. Do you understand?'" - From The Story of the Night

Journalist and novelist, Colm Toibin was born in Enniscorthy, Co Wexford and educated at University College Dublin. His first novel, The South, (1990) about an Irish artist in Spain, won The Irish Times Literature Prize in 1991. The Heather Blazing, won the Encore Award for the best second novel in 1992. His third novel, The Story of the Night (1997) was hailed as an extraordinary work of fiction by critics. Inspired by Tóibín's visit to Argentina, the novel recounts the story of a young man's struggle to come to terms with his homosexuality during the politically turbulent period of the 1970s in Buenos Aires.

Before the publication of his first novel Toibín published a travelogue: Homage to Barcelona (1989) and a selection of his journalism: The Trial of the Generals (1990). Two further non-fiction works followed in the 1990s: Walking Along the Border (1987) and The Sign of the Cross - Travels in Catholic Europe (1994). Tóibín is a former editor of In Dublin and Magill magazines and currently lives in Dublin.