Frank O'Connor

Frank O’Connor (1903–1966) was born in Cork, Ireland, and fought for the Irish Republican Army in the war for independence. He was a prolific author of short stories, plays, literary criticism, memoir, and poetry, and the managing director of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. In addition to being a renowned writer whom W. B. Yeats famously described as “doing for Ireland what Chekhov did for Russia,” O’Connor was also a highly regarded teacher and translator of Irish literature. The world’s richest prize for short fiction is named in his honor.