Christopher Nolan (author)

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This article is about the Irish author. For the British director of Memento and Batman Begins, see Christopher Nolan.
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Christopher Nolan (author)

Born 30 July 1965
Mullingar, Ireland
Nationality Irish
Genres Poetry
Relative(s) Bernadette Nolan (mother)
Joe Nolan (father)
Yvonne Nolan (sister)

Christopher Nolan is an Irish poet and author. Nolan grew up in Mullingar, Ireland, but later moved to Dublin to attend college. He was educated at the Central Remedial Clinic School, Mount Temple Comprehensive School and at Trinity College, Dublin. Nolan has won the Whitbread Book Award, for his autobiography.

Due to birth complications, Nolan was born with cerebral palsy, and can only move his head and eyes. To write, Nolan uses a special computer and keyboard; in order to type, his mother, Bernadette Nolan, holds his head in her hands while Christopher painstakingly picks out each word, letter by letter, with a pointer attached to his forehead. He communicates with others by moving his eyes, using a signal system.

For more information, see the article in the Christian Science Monitor, January 27, 1988: A voice from a mute world sings. Irish poet's prose captures Britain's Whitbread prize. http://www.csmonitor.com/1988/0127/rnolan.html

[edit] Works

  • Dam Burst of Dreams (published 1981, when Nolan was 15 years old), a critically acclaimed collection of poetry that has been compared to the work of illustrious compatriots William Butler Yeats and James Joyce.
  • Under the Eye of the Clock (published 1987), won the Whitbread Award. It is an autobiography, but is told as a third-person biography, and details his struggle with his disability.
  • Torchlight And Lazer Beams (published 1988), a play written with Theatre Director Michael Scott (Dublin Theatre Festival - Gaiety Theatre, Dublin). It is a stage version of Nolan's Under the Eye of the Clock, but also incorporates unpublished poetry Christopher has also written.
  • The Banyan Tree (published 1999), a novel, detailing the life and marriage of an Irish woman and her children.

[edit] Trivia

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Rock band U2, who attended school with Nolan, wrote their song "Miracle Drug" (from How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb) about him. [1]

Bono said of Nolan:

“ We all went to the same school and just as we were leaving, a fellow called Christopher Nolan arrived. He had been deprived of oxygen for two hours when he was born, so he was paraplegic. But his mother believed he could understand what was going on and used to teach him at home. Eventually, they discovered a drug that allowed him to move one muscle in his neck. So they attached this unicorn device to his forehead and he learned to type. And out of him came all these poems that he'd been storing up in his head. Then he put out a collection called Dam-Burst of Dreams, which won a load of awards and he went off to university and became a genius. All because of a mother's love and a medical breakthrough. ”
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