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Claire Keegan

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Claire Keegan
File:Claire Keegan by Cartier-Bresson.jpg
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
Website
ckfictionclinic.com

Claire Keegan (born 1968) is an Irish writer known for her award-winning short stories. Her stories have been published in The New Yorker, Best American Short Stories, Granta, and The Paris Review; and translated into 20 languages.[1][2]

Biography

Born in County Wicklow in 1968, she is the youngest of a large Roman Catholic family. Keegan traveled 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. She subsequently received an M.Phil in Trinity College Dublin.[3]

Keegan's first collection of short stories Antarctica (1999) won many awards, including the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and the William Trevor Prize, and was one of the Los Angeles Times’ ‘Best Books of 2001’.[4][5] Her second collection of much-awarded short stories, Walk the Blue Fields, was published in 2007. Keegan's acclaimed 'long, short story'[6] Foster won the 2009 Davy Byrnes Irish Writing Award 2009 where award judge Richard Ford, who selected Foster as the winner, wrote of Keegan's “thrilling” instinct for the right words and her “patient attention to life's vast consequence and finality.”[7] Foster appeared in the February 15, 2010 issue of the New Yorker and was listed in that publication’s “Best of the Year” list; it was later published by Faber and Faber in longer form. Foster is now included as a text for the Irish Leaving Certificate.[8]

In late 2021 Keegan published another novella, Small Things Like These, described as “a timely and powerful book,” set in Ireland in the mid-1980s.[6][9]

Keegan lives in rural Ireland.

List of works

Awards and honours

Keegan has won the inaugural William Trevor Prize,[10] the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature,[10] the Olive Cook Award and the Davy Byrnes Irish Writing Award 2009.[10] Other awards include The Hugh Leonard Bursary, The Macaulay Fellowship,[10] 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.[11] In 2019, she was appointed as Writing Fellow at Trinity College Dublin.[12] Pembroke College Cambridge and Trinity College Dublin selected Keegan as the 2021 Briena Staunton Visiting Fellow.[13] 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[14] and the Grand Prix de L'Heroine Madame Figaro.[15] In March 2021, Claire and her French translator, Jacqueline Odin, won the Francophonie Ambassadors' Literary Award.[16]

Claire has been a member of Aosdána since 2008.[17][18]

References

  1. ^ "Claire Keegan: 'Short stories are limited. I'm cornered into writing what I can' Interview". the Guardian. 4 September 2010.
  2. ^ Barrett, Colin. "In praise of Claire Keegan, by Colin Barrett". The Irish Times.
  3. ^ "Claire Keegan". Aosdana. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  4. ^ Griswold, Jerry (2 December 2001). "Best Books of 2001". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  5. ^ Sinnott, Una (25 April 2013). "The long and the short of the short story". Galway Advertiser. Retrieved 1 February 2018.
  6. ^ 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.
  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. ^ Gilmartin, Sarah (24 October 2021). "Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan: a timely and powerful book". The Irish Times. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  10. ^ a b c d Boland, Rosita (23 June 2009). "Writer Claire Keegan wins €25,000 Davy Byrnes award". The Irish Times.
  11. ^ "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.
  12. ^ webmaster, Arts Council (12 October 2019). "Writer-in-Residence/Fellowship Appointments 2019/2020". www.artscouncil.ie.
  13. ^ "2021 Briena Staunton Visiting Fellowship Awarded to Claire Keegan". Claire Keegan Fiction Writing Courses. 29 July 2020.
  14. ^ "Discover the authors nominated for the Ireland Francophonie Ambassadors' Literary Award 2021". Ambassade de France en Irlande - French Embassy in Ireland.
  15. ^ "MADAME FIGARO, finalistes du Grand Prix de l'Héroïne 2021, vendredi 12 février 2021 | Revue de presse • SABINE WESPIESER ÉDITEUR".
  16. ^ "Ireland Francophonie Ambassadors' Literary Award Ceremony 2021". Ambassade de France en Irlande - French Embassy in Ireland.
  17. ^ "Literature". Aosdána.
  18. ^ "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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