John Banville was born in Wexford, Ireland, in 1945, the youngest of three siblings. He was educated at Christian Brothers schools and St Peter’s College, Wexford. After college John worked as a clerk for Ireland’s national airline, Aer Lingus, before joining The Irish Press as a sub-editor in 1969. Continuing with journalism for over thirty years, John was Literary Editor at The Irish Times from 1988 to 1999.
Banville published his first book, a collection of short stories titled Long Lankin, in 1970. When he turned 70 in 2015 one might have thought he would start to slow down, but on the contrary, he seems to go into a higher gear, having two new books released in 2017 and doing some teaching stints. He is an author who is already translated into many languages, and one of the leading literary voices in Ireland with international scope and appeal to many. The fact that he is strongly influenced by Yeats creates a link to our previous translating project Yeats Reborn (2013-2015); however, Banville's charm is of course the beautiful prose in which he interweaves philosophy and aesthetics. So the EFACIS board decided that we would launch the Banville Project: Literature as Translation.
Photo credt: Douglas Banville
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