County Derry-born author Maggie O’Farrell wins top literary prize

The Ireland Funds has presented The Ireland Funds AWB Vincent Literary Award to the acclaimed novelist Maggie O’Farrell, at the Conference Gala Dinner at Dublin Castle.

The presentation, which was made by renowned writer and the 2022 The Ireland Funds AWB Vincent Literary Award recipient Joseph O’Connor, forms part of The Ireland Funds Worldwide Conference, held in Dublin as the organisation marks 50 years of philanthropy. The award is accompanied by a €25,000 bursary.

Born in Coleraine, Maggie O’Farrell is one of the most celebrated writers of her generation. Her novel Hamnet won the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2020 and the fiction prize at the National Book Critics Circle Awards.

Her earlier novel The Hand That First Held Mine won the Costa Novel Award in 2010, while her debut, After You’d Gone, won the Betty Trask Award and The Distance Between Us won a Somerset Maugham Award. Her acclaimed memoir, I Am, I Am, I Am, was a number one bestseller, and her novel The Marriage Portrait was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, she more recently co-adapted Hamnet for the screen.

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“I am deeply honoured to receive The Ireland Funds AWB Vincent Literary Award, an honour made all the more meaningful by the extraordinary writers who have received it before me,” said Maggie O’Farrell. “The Ireland Funds has done so much to champion Irish writing around the world, and to be recognised in this 50th anniversary year is a privilege I will treasure.”

“Maggie O’Farrell is one of the most gifted writers of her generation, and a worthy addition to a list of recipients that reads like a roll call of modern Irish literature,” said Caitríona Fottrell, President and CEO of The Ireland Funds. “As we mark 50 years of The Ireland Funds, we are proud to honour a writer whose work has carried the story of Ireland to readers all over the world.”