The John McGahern Annual Book Prize

Sunday 19 October, 5.30pm

Join us for the sixth annual John McGahern Book Prize and hear excerpts from the winning entry, Girl in the Making by Anna Fitzgerald.

FREE

The shortlist was whittled down from 17 entries and the final arbiter was Irish novelist and former University of Liverpool Chancellor, Colm Tóibín.

Girl in the Making follows the life of a troubled girl, Jean Kennedy, growing up in south Dublin over 15 years during the 70s and 80s. Coming to maturity surrounded by a beloved mother, a hated father (known only as He or Him throughout), a sexually predatory uncle and her siblings, this coming-of-age novel is ultimately a hopeful consideration of the power of literature to teach, to transform and to heal.

The prize was established by the University’s Institute of Irish Studies to promote new Irish fiction and to celebrate the memory of one of Ireland’s greatest masters of prose fiction, John McGahern (1934-2006). The competition carries an award of £5,000 for the best debut novel or short story collection by an Irish writer or writer resident in Ireland published in 2024.