Edna O'Brien

Edna O'Brien (born 15 December 1930) is an Irish novelist, memoirist, playwright, poet and short story writer.

Philip Roth has described her "the most gifted woman now writing in English."

Her first novel, The Country Girls, is often credited with breaking silence on sexual matters and social issues during a repressive period in Ireland following World War II. The book was banned, burned and denounced from the pulpit, and O'Brien left Ireland behind.

awards and honours

• 1962: Kingsley Amis Award for The Country Girls
• 1970: Yorkshire Post Book Award (Book of the Year) for A Pagan Place*
• 1990: Los Angeles Times Book Prize (Fiction) for Lantern Slides
• 1991: Premio Grinzane Cavour (Italy) for Girl with Green Eyes
• 1993: Writers' Guild Award (Best Fiction) for Time and Tide
• 1995: European Prize for Literature (European Association for the Arts) for House of Splendid Isolation
• 2001: Irish PEN Award
• 2006: Ulysses Medal (University College Dublin)
• 2009: Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award in Irish Literature
• 2010: Shortlisted for Irish Book of the Decade (Irish Book Awards) for In the Forest
• 2011: Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, Saints and Sinners
• 2012: Irish Book Awards (Irish Non-Fiction Book), Country Girl

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• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edna_O'Brien
• Edna O'Brien: 'A writer's imaginative life commences in childhood' 2011 interview