Colm Tóibín

Lore & Background

Colm Tóibín was born in 1955 in Enniscorthy, County Wexford, in the southeast of Ireland, the fourth of five children. He was raised on Parnell Avenue by his parents, Bríd and Michael Tóibín. His grandfather participated in the Easter Rising of 1916 and was interned at Frongoch in Wales, while an uncle was involved in the IRB during the Irish Civil War; after the Irish Free State was founded, the family favoured the Fianna Fáil party. Tóibín grew up in a home he described as having a great deal of silence. Unable to read until age nine, he also developed a stammer. When he was eight, his father became ill, and his mother sent him and his younger brother Niall to stay with an aunt in County Kildare for three months; she did not call or write to them while tending their father. Tóibín traces his stammer—which often left him unable to speak his own name and which he retained throughout his life—to this period. His father, a schoolteacher, died when Tóibín was twelve. He received his secondary education as a boarder at St Peter’s College, Wexford, between 1970 and 1972, later speaking of finding some of the priests attractive. He was also an altar boy. He attended University College Dublin from 1972, graduating with a BA in 1975. After considering becoming a civil servant, he instead left for Barcelona in September 1975, a city that would feature in his early work. He returned to Ireland in 1978, began writing for *In Dublin*, and became editor of *Magill* from 1982 to 1985, leaving after a dispute with the managing director. Tóibín is gay and has been in a relationship with Hedi El Kholti since 2012; they share a home in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. He has served as a curator for the Morgan Library & Museum and has judged the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Giller Prize. He does not watch television and once admitted he thought Ed Balls was a nickname for Ed Miliband. He plays tennis for leisure and upon meeting Roger Federer asked his opinion on the second serve. He survived testicular cancer that spread to a lung, liver, and lymph node.

Reader's Guide

Colm Tóibín’s literary significance stems from a body of work that includes novels, short stories, essays, criticism, plays, and poetry. His fiction frequently reimagines the inner lives of historical literary figures, as seen in his novel *The Master*, which fictionalizes Henry James, and *The Magician*, which does the same for Thomas Mann. Tóibín’s prose is characterized by restraint and a focus on silence; he has stated that his writing emerges from silence and that he does not consider himself a storyteller. His novels *The Blackwater Lightship* and *The Master* were both shortlisted for the Booker Prize, while *The Master* also won the International Dublin Literary Award. *Nora Webster* received the Hawthornden Prize, and *The Magician* won the Folio Prize. He was elected to Aosdána by his fellow artists and received the David Cohen Prize in 2021. Beyond his writing, Tóibín has shaped the literary field through academic roles, succeeding Martin Amis as professor of creative writing at the University of Manchester, serving as chancellor of the University of Liverpool, and later becoming a professor of the humanities at Columbia University. His work is deeply rooted in Irish history and personal themes, drawing on his upbringing in County Wexford, the early death of his father, and his own experience of a stammer, which he traces to a childhood separation from his mother.

Did You Know?

• Colm Tóibín developed a stammer after being sent away at age eight when his father fell ill.
• He used prize money from the International Dublin Literary Award to build a house near Blackwater, County Wexford.
• He does not watch television and is interested in tennis.
• He survived testicular cancer that spread to multiple organs.