Claire Keegan
Claire Keegan | |
---|---|
Born | 1968 (age 55–56) County Wicklow, Ireland |
Occupation | Short story writer |
Notable works | Antarctica, Walk the Blue Fields Foster |
Notable awards | Rooney Prize for Irish Literature 2000 |
Claire Keegan (born 1968) is an Irish writer known for her award-winning short stories.
Biography
Born in County Wicklow in 1968, she is the youngest of a large Roman Catholic family. She travelled to New Orleans, Louisiana when she was seventeen and studied English and Political Science at Loyola University. She returned to Ireland in 1992 and later lived for a year in Cardiff, Wales, where she undertook an MA in creative writing and taught undergraduates at the University of Wales.
Her first collection of short stories was Antarctica (1999). Her second collection of stories, Walk the Blue Fields, was published in 2007. September 2010 brought the publication of the 'long, short story' "Foster". American writer Richard Ford, who selected "Foster" as winner of the Davy Byrnes Irish Writing Award 2009, wrote in the winning citation of Keegan's “thrilling” instinct for the right words and her “patient attention to life's vast consequence and finality".[1]
She lives in rural Ireland.
List of works
- 1999 – Antarctica
- 2007 – Walk the Blue Fields
- 2010 – Foster
Awards and honours
Keegan has won the inaugural William Trevor Prize,[1] the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature,[1] the Olive Cook Award and the Davy Byrnes Irish Writing Award 2009.[1] Other awards include The Hugh Leonard Bursary, The Macaulay Fellowship,[1] The Martin Healy Prize, The Kilkenny Prize and The Tom Gallon Award. Twice was Keegan the recipient of the Francis MacManus Award. She was also a Wingate Scholar. She was a visiting professor at Villanova University in 2008. She is a member of Aosdána.[2]