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Mark Roper was born in England in 1951, moving to Ireland in 1980, he has since set up home in Tobernabrone, near Piltown, Co. Kilkenny.
Mark’s poetry collections include The Hen Ark (Peterloo, 1990), which won the 1992 Aldeburgh Prize for best first collection; Catching The Light (Peterloo, 1997); and The Home Fire (Abbey Press, 1998). Reviewing the latter for The Irish Literary Supplement, Bill Tinley described Roper as “one of the most accomplished and engaging poets writing in Ireland at present”. Whereabouts was published in 2005 by Abbey Press & Peterloo; Even So: New & Selected Poems was published by Dedalus Press in Autumn 2008. The River Book: A Celebration of the Suir, a collaboration with the photographer Paddy Dwan, was published, to great acclaim, in October 2010.
A sequence of poems called Crossing was recently presented in dramatized form by Animated State Dance Theatre Company at the Theatre Royal, during the Tall Ships Festival in Waterford in July 2011. His poem Angel will be the subject of an animated film by the American digital artist Tim Guthrie, and was also be the subject of an exhibition of photos by the photographer Margaret O’Brien-Moran, in January 2011. A new collection of poems, Keeping Distance, is due from Dedalus in 2011. Mark is also working on another collaboration with photographer Paddy Dwan, based on the Backstrand, in Tramore, Co. Waterford.
Mark was Editor of Poetry Ireland for 1999. In 2001 he edited Ink Bottle, a selection of new writing from Kilkenny, and was awarded Kilkenny’s Father Sean Swayne Art Bursary. He was awarded an Arts Council Bursary in 2010. An experienced Creative Writing teacher, he is currently working in Adult Education in Waterford, Kilkenny and Sligo. He has run courses and workshops in many different settings, including schools, prisons, and senior citizen centres. From September 2002 to May 2003 he was writer-in-residence at Waterford Regional Hospital.
#1 by Michael Pattwell on September 2, 2011 - 4:45 pm
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I did a workshop with Mark Roper away back in Clonmel. It was the early nineties. I have much admired him since then. I also feel he was the best editor Poetry Ireland Review had (issues 61 to 64). I am looking forward to this very much.