Claire Keegan

The ground-breaking voice of Claire Keegan’s début collection of short-stories Antartica propelled the writer onto the Irish literary scene with aplomb upon its publication in 1999. Pursuing “a discipline of omission”, the Wicklow-born writer won wide critical acclaim with stories such as Love in the Tall Grass, Stay Close to the Water’s Edge and The Singing Cashier. She was awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the William Trevor Prize and the Olive Cook Award for her commitment to expanding the scope, form and vision of the short-story. It was also selected as the Los Angeles Times Book of the Year. A member of Aosdána, she is currently working on her second collection of short fiction.