Having moved from India, Bardwell grew up in Leixlip, County Kildare. She was educated at Alexandra school and later at the University of London.

She is considered an important poet by her contemporaries. On the publication of Bardwell's fourth collection of poetry, "The White Beach", Eilean Ni Chuilleanain stated "it is good to see her work of the decades collected - it has inspired many Irish poets, male and female, and should be much more widely known," adding that her work was "witty, full of sharp intimate honesty, full of truth and surprises."

It was recently announced that Bardwell's novel "Girl on a Bicycle" will be republished by Irish publisher, Liberties Press.

Bardwell lives in Sligo and is a member of Aosdána.

Poetry

• The Mad Cyclist [New Writers' Press, 1970]
• The Fly and the Bed Bug [Beaver Row Press, 1984]
• Dostoevsky's Grave: Selected Poems [Dedalus, 1991]
• The White Beach: New and Selected Poems, 1960-1998 [Salmon Publishing, 1998]

Prose

Bardwell has published four novels:

• Girl on a Bicycle [Irish Writers Co-operative, 1977]
• That London Winter [Co-op Books, 1981]
• The House [Brandon, 1984]
• There We Have Been [Attic Press, 1989]

A collection of short stories:

• Different Kinds of Love [Attic Press, 1987]

And a memoir:

• A Restless Life [Liberties Press, 2008]

Plays

Bardwell's plays have been produced by RTÉ and BBC.

In 1975, she co-founded the long running literary magazine Cyphers.