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Claire Keegan

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Claire Keegan
Keegan at the Dublin Writers Festival in 2007.
Keegan at the Dublin Writers Festival in 2007.
Born1968 (age 55–56)
County Wicklow, Ireland
OccupationShort story writer
Notable worksAntarctica
Walk the Blue Fields
Foster
Small Things like These
Notable awardsRooney Prize for Irish Literature
2000

Davy Byrnes Irish Writing Award
2009

Orwell Prize for Political Fiction
2022
Website
ckfictionclinic.com

Claire Keegan (born 1968) is an Irish writer known for her short stories, which have been published in The New Yorker, Best American Short Stories, Granta, and The Paris Review. She is also known for her novellas, two of which have been adapted as films.

Early life and education

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Claire Keegan was born in 1968, and raised on a farm as one of a large family in County Wicklow, Ireland.[1]

She travelled to New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, when she was 17 and studied English and political science at Loyola University.[1] She returned to Ireland in 1992, and later lived for a year in Cardiff, Wales.[citation needed] There she undertook an MA in creative writing and taught undergraduates at the University of Wales. She subsequently received an M. Phil at Trinity College Dublin.[2]

Career

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Keegan's first collection of short stories, Antarctica (1999), won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and the William Trevor Prize.[3][4]

Her second collection of short stories, Walk the Blue Fields, was published in 2007. Keegan's 'long, short story'[5][6] "Foster" won the 2009 Davy Byrnes Short Story Award.[7] "Foster" appeared in the 15 February 2010 issue of The New Yorker and was included in The Best American Short Stories 2011. It was later published by Faber and Faber in a longer form. "Foster" is now included as a text for the Irish Leaving Certificate.[8] It was adapted for film by writer/director Colm Bairéad as An Cailín Ciúin (The Quiet Girl; 2022), and was nominated in 2023 for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.[9]

In late 2021, Keegan published a novella, Small Things like These, set in Ireland in the mid-1980s.[5][10] It was shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize.[11] The film adaptation, starring Cillian Murphy, Emily Watson, and Eileen Walsh, had its world premiere at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival on 15 February 2024.[12]

In February 2022 the story So Late in the Day was published in The New Yorker,[13] and was released in a hardback edition in 2023 by Faber.[14]

Awards and honours

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Keegan has won the inaugural William Trevor Prize,[15] the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature,[15] the Olive Cook Award and the Davy Byrnes Irish Writing Award 2009.[15] Other awards include the Hugh Leonard Bursary, the Macaulay Fellowship,[15] the Martin Healy Prize, the Kilkenny Prize, and the Tom Gallon Award. She was also a 2002 Wingate Scholar and a two-time recipient of the Francis MacManus Award. She was a visiting professor at Villanova University in 2008. Keegan was the Ireland Fund Artist-in-Residence in the Celtic Studies Department of St. Michael's College at the University of Toronto in March 2009.[16] In 2019, she was appointed as Writing Fellow at Trinity College Dublin.[17] Pembroke College Cambridge and Trinity College Dublin selected Keegan as the 2021 Briena Staunton Visiting Fellow.[18]

The French translation of Small Things like These (Ce genre de petites choses) has been shortlisted for two prestigious awards: the Francophonie Ambassadors' Literary Award[19] and the Grand Prix de L'Heroine Madame Figaro.[20] In March 2021, Keegan and her French translator, Jacqueline Odin, won the Francophonie Ambassadors' Literary Award.[21] Small Things like These won the 2022 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction.[22] It became the shortest book to be shortlisted for the Booker Prize at the ceremony in 2022.[23] It was also shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize.[24]

In 2023 Keegan was named "Author of the Year" in conjunction with the Irish Book Awards.[25][26] Her book So Late in the Day was also shortlisted for the Irish "Novel of the Year" award.[citation needed]

Keegan has been a member of Aosdána since 2008.[27][28]

Works

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Novella

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Short story collections

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  • 1999 – Antarctica. Faber and Faber, London. ISBN 978-0-571-19712-5.
  • 2007 – Walk the Blue Fields. Faber and Faber, London. ISBN 978-0-571-23306-9.
  • 2019 – The Forester's Daughter. Faber and Faber, London. ISBN 978-0-571-35185-5.
  • 2023 – So Late in the Day: stories of women and men. Grove Press, New York. ISBN 978-0-8021-6085-0.

Short stories

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  • 2010 – Foster. Faber and Faber, London. ISBN 978-0-571-25565-8. (Available as pdf at Internet Archive)
  • 2022 – So Late in the Day.. Printed in The New Yorker, 21 February 2022.

References

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  1. ^ a b O'Hagan, Sean (4 September 2010). "Claire Keegan: 'Short stories are limited. I'm cornered into writing what I can' Interview". The Guardian.
  2. ^ "Claire Keegan". Aosdana. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  3. ^ Griswold, Jerry (2 December 2001). "Best Books of 2001". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  4. ^ Sinnott, Una (25 April 2013). "The long and the short of the short story". Galway Advertiser. Retrieved 1 February 2018.
  5. ^ a b Armitstead, Claire (21 October 2021). "Claire Keegan: 'I think something needs to be as long as it needs to be'". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  6. ^ Barrett, Colin (4 March 2015). "In praise of Claire Keegan, by Colin Barrett". The Irish Times.
  7. ^ Boland, Rosita (23 June 2009). "Writer Claire Keegan wins €25,000 Davy Byrnes award". The Irish Times. Retrieved 1 February 2018.
  8. ^ Gilmartin, Sarah (16 July 2014). "What to read on holiday in...Ireland". The Irish Times. Retrieved 1 February 2018.
  9. ^ "The quiet girl". IMDb.com. Retrieved 19 November 2023.
  10. ^ Gilmartin, Sarah (24 October 2021). "Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan: a timely and powerful book". The Irish Times. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  11. ^ "Irish author Claire Keegan nominated for prestigious Booker Prize". TheJournal. 7 September 2022. Retrieved 9 September 2022.
  12. ^ "Small Things Like These". Berlinale. Archived from the original on 16 February 2024. Retrieved 6 March 2024.
  13. ^ Keegan, Claire (17 February 2022). ""So Late in the Day"". The New Yorker. Retrieved 15 May 2024.
  14. ^ "So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan". JacquiWine's Journal. 10 September 2023. Retrieved 15 May 2024.
  15. ^ a b c d Boland, Rosita (23 June 2009). "Writer Claire Keegan wins €25,000 Davy Byrnes award". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 7 March 2013. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
  16. ^ "SMC Sponsored Programs - Celtic Studies - Ireland Fund Artist-in-Residence Program | University of St. Michael's College". stmikes.utoronto.ca. Archived from the original on 29 September 2017. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
  17. ^ webmaster, Arts Council (12 October 2019). "Writer-in-Residence/Fellowship Appointments 2019/2020". www.artscouncil.ie.
  18. ^ "2021 Briena Staunton Visiting Fellowship Awarded to Claire Keegan". Claire Keegan Fiction Writing Courses. 29 July 2020.
  19. ^ "Discover the authors nominated for the Ireland Francophonie Ambassadors' Literary Award 2021". Ambassade de France en Irlande - French Embassy in Ireland.
  20. ^ "MADAME FIGARO, finalistes du Grand Prix de l'Héroïne 2021, vendredi 12 février 2021 | Revue de presse • SABINE WESPIESER ÉDITEUR".
  21. ^ "Ireland Francophonie Ambassadors' Literary Award Ceremony 2021". Ambassade de France en Irlande - French Embassy in Ireland.
  22. ^ "The Orwell Prizes 2022: Winners Announced | The Orwell Foundation". www.orwellfoundation.com. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
  23. ^ Mackay-Smith, Donna (2022). "Reading Guide: Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan". thebookerprizes.com. The Booker Prizes. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  24. ^ "The Rathbones Folio Prize 2022". The Writers' Prize. Retrieved 11 February 2024.
  25. ^ "AN POST IRISH BOOK AWARDS Winners 2023". Retrieved 23 November 2023.
  26. ^ Falvey, Deirdre (22 November 2023). "Paul Murray wins Novel of the Year for The Bee Sting at the An Post Irish Book Awards". irishtimes.com. Retrieved 23 November 2023.
  27. ^ "Literature". Aosdána.
  28. ^ "Aosdána elects 10 new members and announces Camille Souter as Saoi". The Arts Council. 9 May 2008. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
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