A former British diplomat, Daniel is a theatre director, actor and professor of creative writing, English and theatre at听the American University of Rome. He has acted in and directed theatre in America, the UK, Italy and China, where his 2009 production of David Henry Hwang鈥檚听M Butterfly听was forced to close by the Chinese secret police.
His writing is widely published in print and online. He was the winner of the 2014 Fermoy International Poetry Festival Prize, a finalist in the 2015听Aesthetica听Magazine听Creative Writing Prize and winner of the 2015 Cuirt New Writing Prize for poetry. Recent work has appeared in听The North,听The Transnational听(in German),听Ink, Sweat and Tears,听The Moth,听Acumen听and听Critical Survey听and he has a forthcoming pamphlet from Eyewear Publishing as part of their Aviator Series.
At once personal and hauntingly universal,听Extravagant Stranger听is the compelling memoir of self-professed 鈥榞lobal scalliwag鈥� Daniel Roy Connelly 鈥� former diplomat, theatre director, Shakespeare scholar and conscience-stricken father.
Laced with international intrigue and hilarious moments of well-aimed self-scrutiny, here is a book 鈥撎齦ike the life it relates 鈥� truly without comparison.听
听
IN THE PRESS
鈥淭hese are glowing, moving prose poems of hallucinatory intensity. The wit and bracing honesty of the memories, from awkward to adulatory, take you through a powerfully personal journey (for the reader as much as the writer) in each poem and in the sequence overall. The sense of timing is exquisite.听A masterclass in how to turn a scene, a moment, so that it catches the light听just so听in the final sentence. Connelly combines the autobiographical courage of Heaney and Hill with the symbolic technique and the reach and ambition of the French masters of the form and the effect is mesmerising.鈥澨�� LUKE KENNARD (Transition,听Cain)
鈥淎 collection of personal moments so delicately described that they feel universal, Connelly鈥檚听Extravagant Stranger听is an acutely honest exposition of a life lived poetically.鈥� 鈥� AARON KENT (Tertiary Colours,听Blood Fj酶rd '89)
鈥淒aniel Roy Connelly is a crackerjack fabulist with top-banana timing. His wordplay is infectious.鈥� 鈥� HELEN IVORY
鈥淒aniel Roy Connelly is one of the most strikingly original writers I鈥檝e heard in a while 鈥� witty, keenly insightful, with a droll, pitch-perfect sense of timing, his work feels like a refreshing wake-up call.鈥� 鈥� NAOMI SHIHAB NYE
"Extravagant Stranger听is a book that听feels听very contemporary, very听now. It is between genres and styles and in a space where a lot of attention is being paid.听Connelly has lived an interesting life, and evokes it in an interesting way." 鈥� Scott Hadley,听Triumph of the Now
DANIEL ROY CONNELLY IN VIDEO
A letter to my son, re. black dog
Daniel performs his poem tackling the black dog of depression in the form of a letter to his 6-year-old son. Published online by The Good Men Project. 漏 Daniel Roy Connelly, 2016.