Éilís Ní Dhuibhne announced as new Laureate for Irish Fiction
An initiative of the Arts Council, the role Laureate for Irish Fiction seeks to acknowledge the contribution of fiction writers to Irish artistic and cultural life by honouring an established Irish writer of fiction, encouraging a new generation of writers, promoting Irish literature nationally and internationally and encouraging the public to engage with high quality Irish fiction.
The role runs for a three-year term. The Laureateship was most recently held by Colm Tóibín (2022 – 2024), following Sebastian Barry (2018-2021) and the inaugural Laureate, Anne Enright (2015-2018).
Born in Dublin in 1954, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne published her first short story collection, Blood and Water, in 1988. She has published several acclaimed volumes of short stories as well as novels in both English and Irish, children's books, plays, poetry and non-fiction, including Twelve Thousand Days: A Memoir of Love and Loss, an acclaimed memoir of her and her husband's life together before his passing in 2013.
Listen: Éilís Ní Dhuibhne talks to RTÉ Raidió Na Gaeltachta
Her work has received many awards, including the Listowel Writers' Week poetry award, the Stewart Parker Award for drama, three Bisto awards for children's books, three Oireachtas awards for novels in Irish, the Irish National Book award, the Butler Award from the Association of Irish-American Studies and the Readers' Association of Ireland Award, among others.
Commenting on her appointment, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne said:
"I am absolutely delighted, very pleasantly surprised, and highly honoured to be offered the Laureateship in Irish Fiction. I feel lucky. Why me? Many writers deserve the accolade.
So, after the first stunned few days, I am considering how to be an active and creative Laureate. Writing is something you do in privacy and solitude of course, but it always has an obvious public face. It moves from the inside of the writer's head, from their room or laptop or whatever, to the book or the screen. It's published.
And while the actual writing is a 'solitary' task, it generally has a social aspect in the more regular sense. Writers belong to their own community, and to the community of writers. All my life I have been meeting writers at book launches, classes, festivals, and in the writers' group I've belonged to for almost forty years."
The over-arching theme of Éilís Ní Dhuibhne's Laureateship will be 'The Island of Imagination', exploring the question of "what makes a good story?", as well as celebrating fiction in the Irish language and other European languages.
"The Laureateship is mainly a public role," added Ní Dhuibhne. The role allows time for writing – I think that would be essential. But it's about reaching out, and representing reading and writing, readers and writers. So I am pondering ways of fulfilling this public side of the role, and have come up with dozens of ideas."
Welcoming Éilís Ní Dhuibhne's appointment, Chair of the Arts Council, Maura McGrath, said: "The Arts Council is very proud to award Éilís Ní Dhuibhne the honour of Laureate for Irish Fiction from 2025 to 2028. Her novels and short stories, published in both English and Irish, have rightly earned her critical acclaim and a devoted readership. We know she will bring remarkable vitality and deep understanding to the role of Laureate for Irish Fiction, building on the great work of her predecessors."
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