Tom French
The recipient of the Forward Prize for Best First Collection in 2001, the Dermot Healy Award in 2015 and the O’Shaughnessy Award for Poetry in 2016, Tom French is a lyric poet of the first order. His poems are richly realized and a true pleasure to read.
— Thomas O’Grady, New Hibernian Review
Tom French was born in Kilkenny in 1966. He graduated from National University of Ireland, Galway and the University of Limerick.
He received bursaries in literature from An Chomhairle Ealaíon/The Arts Council, Ireland in 1999 and 2009, and his work was awarded the inaugural Ted McNulty Prize. His first collection Touching the Bones (Gallery Press, 2001) was awarded the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, 2002. The Gallery Press has also published The Fire Step (2009), Midnightstown (2014), The Way to Work (2016), The Last Straw (2018, Irish Times/Poetry Now Award shortlist), The Sea Field (2020) and Company (2022), shortlisted for the inaugural Yeats Society Poetry Prize and winner of the 2023 Pigott Poetry Prize in association with Listowel Writers’ Week. The Convent of Mercy, his eighth collection, was published in July 2025.
Recipient of the Dermot Healy Award in 2015 and the O’Shaughnessy Award for Poetry in 2016 Tom French lives with his family close to the coast of County Meath where he earns his living in the County library service.
Tom French Titles
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The Convent of Mercy
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Company
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The Sea Field
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The Last Straw
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Touching the Bones
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The Way to Work
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The Fire Step
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The Convent of Mercy
The Convent of Mercy, blending wry humour and deep empathy, is the work of a poet ‘in complete command of his materials’ (Thomas McCarthy, Dublin Review of Books).
Videos
‘Gogarty’s Printers, Kilmainhamwood’ from The Fire Step (2009).
‘Commute‘ from The Fire Step (2009).
‘Leaving Ballybeg‘ (2013).
‘The Neptune Pool: Lockers’ The Way to Work (2016).