Billy O'Callaghan

Billy O'Callaghan (born 9 December 1974) is an Irish short fiction writer and novelist. He is best known for his short-story collection The Things We Lose, The Things We Leave Behind, which was awarded the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Award for the short story in 2013[1][2][3] and his widely-translated novel My Coney Island Baby, which was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature's Encore Award.

Billy O'Callaghan
Billy O'Callaghan (August 2016)
Born (1974-12-09) 9 December 1974
Cork, Ireland
OccupationWriter
NationalityIreland
Period1999–present
Literary movementIrish Short Story
Notable worksThe Things We Lose, The Things We Leave Behind. My Coney Island Baby
Website
www.billyocallaghan.ie/en/bibliography/

Early life

Billy O'Callaghan was born in Cork in 1974, and grew up in Douglas village, where he still lives.

Literary career

His first collection of short stories, In Exile, was published by Mercier Press in 2008.[4] This was followed a year later by a second collection, In Too Deep (also published by Mercier Press).[5][6] In 2013, his third collection, The Things We Lose, The Things We Leave Behind, was published by New Island Books.[7][8] His short stories have been published in literary journals around the world,[9] and translated into several other languages. His work has been broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1's The Book On One,[10] Sunday Miscellany[11] and the Francis McManus Award series.[12]

In 2017, Ploughshares published O'Callaghan's story A Death in the Family as a Ploughshares Solo.[13]

O'Callaghan's first novel, The Dead House, was published in Ireland by Brandon, an imprint of O'Brien Press, in 2017, and in North America by Arcade Publishing in 2018.[14][15]

His novel, My Coney Island Baby, was published in 2019, by Jonathan Cape (UK)[16] and Harper (USA),[17] as well as in French by Éditions Grasset as Les amants de Coney Island, translated by Carine Chichereau,[18] Dutch by Ambo Anthos as Mijn lief op Coney Island, translated by Lette Vos,[19] German by btb Verlag as Die Liebenden von Coney Island, translated by Sibylle Schmidt[20] and Czech by Paseka as Náš Coney Island, translated by Petr Eliáš.[21]

A new short story collection, The Boatman and Other Stories, was published in January 2020 by Jonathan Cape (UK)[22] and Harper Perennial (USA).[23]

A new novel Life Sentences will be published in 2021 by Jonathan Cape (UK)[24]

Awards

In November 2013, "The Things We Lose, The Things We Leave Behind" won the inaugural Short Story of the Year Award at the 2013 Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Award; "Down by the River" was selected in 2014 as Ireland's representative in the ongoing UNESCO Cities of Literature project;[25] and "The Boatman" was a finalist for the 2016 Costa Short Story Award.[26] In June 2020, My Coney Island Baby was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature's Encore Award.[27]

Bibliography

Short story collections
  • In Exile (2008)
  • In Too Deep (2009)
  • The Things We Lose, The Things We Leave Behind (2013)
  • The Boatman and Other Stories (2020)

Non-fiction
  • Learning from the Greats: Lessons on Writing, from the Great Writers (2014)[28]

Novels
  • The Dead House (2017)
  • My Coney Island Baby (2019)
  • Life Sentences (2021)

References
  1. "Writing.ie Short Story of the Year".
  2. "Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Award Winners". The Sunday Independent. 2 December 2013.
  3. "Irish Book Award Winners".
  4. McClements, Freya (24 January 2009). "PAPERBACKS". The Irish Times.
  5. "Billy O'Callaghan, Mercier Press".
  6. Van Booy, Simon. "In Too Deep Review". The Stinging Fly, Issue 15, Vol. 2.
  7. "No escape from reality in atmospheric fictions". The Irish Examiner. 23 November 2013.
  8. McLaughlin, Danielle. "The Things We Lose, The Things We Leave Behind". Southword.
  9. The Forge literary magazine, 28 March 2016
  10. "RTÉ Radio 1: The Book On One".
  11. Sunday Miscellany 24 November 2013, RTE.
  12. Francis McManus short story, RTE, 2 November 2015.
  13. "A Death in the Family (6.4) | Ploughshares". www.pshares.org. Retrieved 1 August 2019.
  14. "Billy O'Callaghan | Author Rights Agency". Archived from the original on 18 April 2016.
  15. Book Review, New York Times, 1 June 2018.
  16. Penguin Books site.
  17. Harper Collins site.
  18. Grasset site.
  19. Ambo Anthos site
  20. Random House site
  21. Paseka site.
  22. Penguin Books site.
  23. Harper Collins site.
  24. Penguin Books site.
  25. "Down by the River eftir Billy O'Callaghan". Archived from the original on 24 March 2015.
  26. Irish writers on Costa short story award list, Irish Times, 26 January 2017.
  28. Learning From The Greats Archived 16 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine: Lessons on Writing, from the Great Writers
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