Limerick Literary Festival announces winner of the Kate O'Brien Award

LIMERICK Literary Festival has announced the winner of this year’s Kate O’Brien Award.

On Sunday, February 26, the festival crowned Emilie Pine, author of Ruth & Pen, as the winner of the prestigious award.

With her debut novel, Emilie tells the story of two women who don’t know each other, but who are both asking themselves the same questions: how to be with others, and how, when the world doesn’t seem willing to make space for them, to be with themselves.

"For her deeply moving, poignant, intelligent & perceptive novel that stays with, The Kate O’Brien Award winner is Emilie Pine. Ruth & pen succeeds in making us think differently about important & serious themes including infertility & autism & we thank & congratulate Emilie," commented Limerick Literary Festival on Twitter.

Sponsored by Denise and Bill Whelan, the award is given to the best debut novel or short story collection written by an Irish female writer.

The other shortlisted books were How To Gut A Fish by Sheila Armstrong and The Quiet Whisper Never Stop by Olivia Fitzsimmons.

This year, the judges were committee member Marie Hackett, writer and critic Niall MacMonagle, poet committee member Vivienne McKechnie, writer and Children’s book buyer for O’Mahony’s Bookshop Grainne O’Brien, as well as novelist and UL lecturer Donal Ryan.