Weeds in the streetscape, wild flowers in a field, Mary Guckian gives witness to the powerful fragility of the moment a human soul sets foot in nature. – Fran Smyth

Mary Guckian was born in 1942 in County Leitrim in Ireland.  She currently works in the library of the Institute of Public Administration in Dublin.  Throughout a life of participation she with in the arts, she has published poetry and fiction and is also an accomplished photographer whose work has been exhibited ion a number of locations.  Her photographs of rural Ireland formed part of a postcard series available in Ireland in the 1980s.

She has won awards for her poetry, which has appeared in a number of literary journals, including Acorn, Books Ireland, and Women’s Work.  A selection of her work is also included in the innovative anthology Quartet which emerged from her time as a member of the Rathmines Writers’ Group and her longer poems have been broadcast by the RTE and Anna Livia Radio.  She has published two books, Perfume of the Soil and The Road to Gowel.