{{Short description|Irish writer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox writer <!--For more information, see :Template:Infobox Writer/doc.--> | name = Mary Beckett | honorific_prefix = | honorific_suffix = | image = File:Mary_Beckett.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | pseudonym = | birth_name = | birth_date = 1926 | birth_place = Belfast, Northern Ireland | death_date = {{death date and age|2013|1926}} | death_place = Dublin, Ireland<ref name=Casey>{{cite web|last1=Casey|first1=Philip|title=Beckett, Mary|url=http://www.irishwriters-online.com/beckett-mary/|website=Irish Writers Online|accessdate=13 October 2014}}</ref> | resting_place = | occupation = Author | nationality = Irish
| education = | alma_mater = St. Mary's Teacher Training College<ref name=telegraphobit/> | period = | genre = <!-- or: | genres = --> | subject = <!-- or: | subjects = --> | movement = | notableworks = ''Give Them Stones''<br />''A Belfast Woman''<br />''A Literary Woman''<ref name=telegraphobit/><!-- or: | notablework = --> | spouse = <!-- or: | spouses = --> | partner = <!-- or: | partners = --> | children = 5 | relatives = | awards = 1987 The Sunday Tribute Arts Award for Literature | signature = | signature_alt = | years_active = | module = | website = | portaldisp = <!-- "on", "yes", "true", etc; or omit --> }} '''Mary Beckett''' (1926–2013)<ref name=telegraphobit>{{cite news|url=http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/mary-beckett-literary-world-mourning-loss-of-top-woman-writer-29745537.html|title=Mary Beckett: Literary world mourning loss of top woman writer|last=Ferguson|first=Amanda|date=12 November 2013|accessdate=11 October 2014}}</ref> was an Irish author.
==Biography== She was born in Belfast.<ref>{{cite book|title=Irish Women Writers: An A-to-Z Guide|year=2006|editor=Alexander G. Gonzalez|publisher=Greenwood|pages=14–17|isbn=978-0313328831}}</ref> She attended St. Dominic's High School and then proceeded to St. Mary's Teacher Training College. She married and moved to Dublin where she worked as a teacher. She had five children.
==Writing career== In the 1950s, she wrote radio plays for BBC Northern Ireland and had several short stories published.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Matthews|first=Kelley|date=Summer 2014|title=A Belfast Woman: Shame, Guilt, and Gender in Mary Beckett's Short Stories of the 1950s|journal=New Hibernia Review|publisher=University of St. Thomas|volume=18|issue=2|pages=97–109|doi=10.1353/nhr.2014.0031|s2cid=143977948}}</ref>
It was not until she was in her fifties that she began publish again. Her first was a collection of her earlier short stories entitled ''A Belfast Woman'' (1980).<ref>{{cite book|last=Pelan|first=Rebecca|title=Two Irelands: Literary Feminisms North And South|publisher=Syracuse University Press|date=2006|pages=55–56|isbn=978-0815630593}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Matthews |first1=Kelly |title=A Belfast woman: Shame, guilt and gender in Mary Beckett's short stories of the 1950s |journal=New Hibernia Review / Iris Éireannach Nua |date=2014 |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=97–109 |doi=10.1353/nhr.2014.0031 |jstor=24625134 |s2cid=143977948 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24625134|access-date=9 August 2021|url-access=subscription }}</ref> This was followed by ''A Literary Woman'' (1990). She also wrote a novel entitled ''Give them Stones'' (1987), and several children's books including ''Orla was Six'', ''Orla at School'', ''A Family Tree'', and ''Hannah, or the Pink Balloons''.
== References == {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Beckett, Mary}} Category:1926 births Category:2013 deaths Category:20th-century Irish women writers Category:20th-century Irish short story writers Category:Irish women novelists Category:20th-century Irish novelists Category:Irish women short story writers Category:Writers from Belfast Category:People educated at St Dominic's Grammar School for Girls