Moya Roddy attended the National College of Art and Trinity Arts Lab as a night student. She continued to paint during a two-year stay in Italy before moving to London where she trained as a television director. Que Sera Sera, which she wrote and directed, won a Sony Award in 1984 and in 1985 the British Film Institute commissioned her to write her first feature film. Several of her screenplays have been optioned in the U.S. and she has worked for Channel 4, BBC, Scottish Television and RTE. On her return to Ireland she published a novel The Long Way Home (Attic Press) which was described in the Irish Times as "simply brilliant". Her collection of short stories Other People (Wordsonthestreet) was long-listed for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and a radio play Dance Ballerina Dance was shortlisted for the P.J.O'Connor Award. With her partner Pete Mullineaux she's co-written two plays for GYT and a radio play Butterfly Wings for RTE. She did a Portfolio Course in art at GTI (2005); and was awarded an MA in Writing (Hons First Class) from NUIG in 2008. Although she's been writing and reading her poetry for many years she only began sending it out recently. Her work was highly commended at the Patrick Kavanagh Awards in 2016 and shortlisted for the Hennessy Award in 2017.

Books by Moya Roddy:

Other poems on the web by Moya Roddy:
Three poems

About Out of the Ordinary:

"These poems—as one might expect from the title—play with the idea of what is ordinary and what, quite definitely, is not. A gentle humour occasionally underpins the tender moments when we discover vast prairies of feeling bound within the cargo of everyday living. A woman, bored with her husband, recalibrates her life for a while with a new, imagined version of love; a Killeen of stillborn babies becomes the trigger-moment of loss for a mother; and a country girl discovers what it is to be different from the more knowing town girls. This is an Ireland some commentators deny exists. But Moya Roddy offers the reader a series of unfiltered snapshots as if to reclaim it. Each poem finds its careful focus, allowing us to remember our own lost moments and enter into dialogue with a poetic voice that is authentic and truth-filled.'"
—Mary O'Donnell

"Stunning and memorable poems."
—Rita Ann Higgins