Deane, John F., 1943-

John F. Deane was born in 1943 on Achill Island, County Mayo, Ireland. He was educated at Mungret College, a Jesuit boarding school in Limerick. Deane then studied English and French at University College Dublin. In 1979, he founded Poetry Ireland, a national poetry society, and Poetry Ireland Review. In 1985, Deane founded Dedalus Press, another poetry publishing company, this time with an eye towards Europe and the translation of European poets.

Deane has published many collections of poetry, including Winter in Meath (1984), Walking on Water (1994), and Dear Pilgrims (2018). He has won the O’Shaughnessy Award for Irish Poetry, the Marten Toonder Award for Literature, and the Gregory O’Donoghue International Poetry Prize. In 1996, Deane was elected Secretary-General of the European Academy of Poetry. He was visiting scholar at the Burns Library at Boston College in 2008, and in 2012, became Distinguished Visiting Professor at Suffolk University, Boston. Deane is also a member of Aosdána, the Irish association of artists founded in 1981.