Aidan Fadden was born in Birmingham, UK, to Irish parents, and is a dual British/Irish national. He attended a state comprehensive school and holds a BA in English Language and Literature from The University of Wales, Bangor. As an undergraduate, his main interests were Contemporary British, Irish and American Poetry, Contemporary Fiction, American Literature, and Creative Writing. Aidan is also a keen linguist; he is fluent in Italian, has upper-intermediate level French and Spanish, and speaks basic Irish.
Aidan also has an MA in Modern Literary Studies from The Queen’s University of Belfast. In 1997, he was closely involved in developing and expanding The Imperial Archive at Queen’s, an innovative online, multi-media resource hub for research into post-colonial literature and contexts. Aidan’s research examined Ireland’s post-colonial status with a close analysis of the drama of Brian Friel and the novels of Flann O’Brien. His research also centred on the poetry arising from conflict, particularly the writing of the Northern Ireland ‘Troubles’ - in particular, that of the so-called Belfast Group. He wrote his MA dissertation on the late Belfast Poet and musician Ciaran Carson.
Aidan was employed for several years at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (UNFAO) as a language consultant, writing tutor, and official examiner. In this role, he worked extensively on course and content creation, particularly in relation to the UN Millennium Goals, as well as editing, and translation of official documents and publications. Since 1999, he has worked in English language teaching in France, the UK, and Italy, including at Aston University, UK; Roma Tre, Italy; and John Cabot University, Rome, where he has been an Adjunct Lecturer in Writing since 2012. He is also a published poet and novelist.
Publications and Research
Aidan Fadden’s poetry has been published widely in print journals including Stand, The North, Magma, Lunar Poetry, The Journal, and Orbis, as well as in translation in the Italian magazines Pagine and Sagarana. His work has appeared online in Ink Sweat&Tears, The Galway Review and Prole. He has also reviewed for PN Review, Fortnight and The Contemporary Poetry Review. His short stories have appeared in Accattone, Italy (translated into Italian) and in English on East of The Web.
Writing as Aidan Conway, he has published two novels: A Known Evil (Harper Collins, 2018) and A Cold Flame (Harper Collins, 2018), both of which are also due to be released as audio books in February, 2021. He has also contributed a number of articles on creative writing to Writing.ie, an online resource for creative writers. In 2018, he was invited to read at the inaugural Murder One International Crime Writing Festival in Dublin. In 2019, he was a guest at the Noireland International Crime Writing Festival in Belfast appearing on the panel ‘Brexit Means…?’
Courses
Aidan Fadden teaches Intensive English Composition (EN103). This course takes students through from the very basics of writing paragraphs to completing fully sourced academic essays by addressing a wide range of contemporary and academic issues.
He has also taught English Composition (EN105). On this intermediate level course, students concentrate on honing their writing ability in a range of rhetorical modes appropriate to academic essay writing.
Aidan is an experienced instructor on the Advanced English Composition course (EN110). The goal of this course is to complete students’ academic writing preparation as they further deepen their analytical and argumentative skills to produce fully-sourced and original research papers on topics of their choosing.
Aidan will also be teaching the Fiction Writing Workshop (CW350) this year.
You can find out more at:
@aidanfadden1 (for poetry)
@conwayrome (for fiction)
aidanconway.net