Colm Tóibín is an acclaimed Irish author known for works of fiction and nonfiction alike. His first novel, The South, was published in 1990. The Blackwater Lightship was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. The Master (a fictionalized version of the inner life of Henry James) was also shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the 2006 International Dublin Literary Award. Nora Webster won the Hawthornden Prize, while The Magician (a fictionalized version of the life of Thomas Mann) won the Folio Prize. His fellow artists elected him to Aosdána and he won the David Cohen Prize in 2021.

As an author, Tóibín often uses real experiences to influence aspects of his writing. Most notably, Tóibín sets many of his works in County Wexford, where he grew up, reflecting his own upbringing. His father taught history at the Christian Brothers’ school in Enniscorthy, a small town in southeastern Ireland where his family has deep roots. Enniscorthy is the setting of much of Long Island. Furthermore, Long Island’s predecessor Brooklyn, is an historical novel that explores Irish immigration to New York in the 1950s and further captures Tóibín’s own experience.

He succeeded Martin Amis as professor of creative writing at the University of Manchester. He was Chancellor of the University of Liverpool in 2017- 2022. He is now the Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of Humanities at Columbia University in Manhattan.

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