Books

Irish writers Anne Enright, Claire Kilroy and Megan Nolan named on Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist

Anne Enright, Claire Kilroy and Megan Nolan in running for £30,000 fiction award

The Women's Prize for Fiction 2024 longlist includes three Irish authors.

Martin Doyle
Tue Mar 5 2024 - 18:00

In another strong showing for Irish writing, three Irish authors have been longlisted for the 2024 Women’s Prize for Fiction.

Anne Enright, who has previously been shortlisted twice and longlisted four times, is recognised again for The Wren, The Wren, her eighth novel, a family saga featuring Nell, her mother Carmel and her famous grandfather, a poet of beautiful words and brutal actions. Claire Kilroy is longlisted for the first time for Soldier, Sailor, her fifth novel but her first in 10 years. about a new mother’s love for her child and struggle for autonomy. Megan Nolan is longlisted for her second novel, Ordinary Human Failings, about a journalist’s attempt to get a scoop after a child is found dead on a London estate and suspicion falls on an Irish family.

The longlist features eight debut novelists (Maya Binyam, Effie Black, Alicia Elliott, Kate Foster, Mirinae Lee, Chetna Maroo, Aube Rey Lescure and Pam Williams), four authors with their second novel (VV Ganeshananthan, Isabella Hammad, Peace Adzo Medie and Nolan), and four veteran writers, including Kate Grenville, author of Restless Dolly Maunder, who won the prize in 2001 with The Idea of Perfection.

Brick Lane author Monica Ali, who chairs this year’s judging panel, is not surprised that debuts make up half the longlist. There were eight last year too and as many as 11 in 2006 and 2016. She is struck, however, by the strength of the Irish representation, on a par with the US contingent.

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“It does speak to the fantastic flourishing of Irish writing,” she said, “not just the Women’s Prize but the Booker too. The Irish take literature very seriously and nurture their writers with more funding, fellowships, space to develop. That shows through. I wish we in the UK could pay some attention to that and follow suit.”

Paul Lynch’s Prophet Song won last year’s Booker Prize, while Paul Murray’s The Bee Sting was shortlisted and Elaine Feeney and Sebastian Barry were longlisted. Murray won the Nero fiction award and Michael Magee’s Close to Home the Nero debut fiction prize.

Assessing the longlisted Irish works, Ali said: “The strength of Anne Enright’s writing is tremendous, gorgeous and evocative and scalpel sharp. I ended up just writing out sentences, I’m not a sentence fetishist but the beauty of her writing is transporting. The Wren, The Wren is a meditation on love, family, trauma, a testament to the resilience of women in face of what life throws at them. A psychologically astute examination of family dynamics and the nature of memory.”

Soldier Sailor is “a tremendous piece of work, a very fine canvas, a tiny domestic space. I thought I must have read so much before about mothers and their babies but when I read it I realised I hadn’t. It’s so powerful the way it exposes the dynamics around autonomy, creativity, power shifts within marriage after the first baby, loss of identity, rage without losing sight of the love.”

[ Claire Kilroy: ‘I haven’t met one mother who didn’t talk about failure’ ]

Discussing Nolan’s novel, she said, “what we found brilliant is the way it focuses on a family that might be labelled as troubled, written off. What we get in a clever structure is a really layered, nuanced look at individual lives full humanity. It deals with alcoholism, unplanned pregnancy, it breaks your heart but also leaves you with hope.”

Brick Lane author Monica Ali, who chairs the judging panel for this year's prize. Photograph: Sam Holden Agency/Women's Prize Trust/PA Wire

Ali said of the longlist: “It’s a very diverse list but one theme I would pick out is that of immigration and emigration. It’s fascinating to see how women writers have engaged with it. Each one of these books is brilliant, original and utterly unputdownable. Collectively, they offer a wide array of compelling narratives from around the world, written with verve, wit, passion and compassion. They are books that will engage readers’ hearts and minds, they are filled with indelible characters, and they do what stories can do so powerfully: unsettle and disturb as well as surprise and delight.

Ali said of the longlist: “It’s a very diverse list but one theme I would pick out is that of immigration and emigration. It’s fascinating to see how women writers have engaged with it. Each one of these books is brilliant, original and utterly unputdownable. Collectively, they offer a wide array of compelling narratives from around the world, written with verve, wit, passion and compassion. They are books that will engage readers’ hearts and minds, they are filled with indelible characters, and they do what stories can do so powerfully: unsettle and disturb as well as surprise and delight.”

The shortlist of six will be announced on April 24th and the winner of the £30,000 prize will be awarded on June 13th.

The longlist

Hangman by Maya Binyam

In Defence of the Act by Effie Black

And Then She Fell by Alicia Elliott

The Wren, The Wren by Anne Enright

The Maiden by Kate Foster

Brotherless Night by VV Ganeshananthan

Restless Dolly Maunder by Kate Grenville

Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad

Soldier Sailor by Claire Kilroy

8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster by Mirinae Lee

The Blue, Beautiful World by Karen Lord

Western Lane by Chetna Maroo

Nightbloom by Peace Adzo Medie

Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan

River East, River West by Aube Rey Lescure

A Trace of Sun by Pam Williams

Martin Doyle

Martin Doyle

Martin Doyle is Books Editor of The Irish Times

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