The Writings of Padraic Colum: That Queer Thing Genius

This co-edited collection breaks new ground by bringing together several leading scholars to explore the substantial body of work produced by Padraic Colum (1881–1972) who was a poet, a novelist, a dramatist, a biographer, a writer of fiction for adults and children, and a collector of folklore. The awards, honours, and distinction conferred upon him and his work throughout his life and career, as well as retrospectively, give an indication of the significant and wide-ranging appeal and influence of Colum not only as an Irish writer and storyteller but also as a literary figure entrusted with the myths and legends of other cultures and nations. Despite such achievements, he has received comparatively little critical or scholarly attention to date. This volume showcases the richness of Colum’s work by subjecting it to a rigorous literary and theoretical examination and is the first combined and detailed analysis of both his children’s and adult texts.

Pádraic Whyte is Associate Professor and Co-Director of the MPhil programme in Children’s Literature at the School of English, Trinity College Dublin. He is a Fulbright scholar whose publications include the co-edited volume Children’s Literature Collections: Approaches to Research (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), which won the International Research Society for Children’s Literature Edited Book Award, 2019.

Keith O’Sullivan is Associate Professor and Head of the School of English, Dublin City University. He is also deputy chair of the MA in Children’s and Young Adult Literature programme and co-director of the Centre for Research in Children’s and Young Adult Literature. He is a co-principal investigator on the Creative Europe G-Book projects (www.g-book.eu).