Colin Barrett (born April 26, 1982) is an Irish Canadian writer, published since 2009. He started his career with the 2009 publication of "Let's Go Kill Ourselves" in ''

The Stinging Fly ''The Stinging Fly'' is a literary magazine published in Ireland, featuring short stories, essays, and poetry. It publishes two issues each year. In 2005, ''The Stinging Fly'' moved into a book publishing with the establishment of The Stinging ...

''. Barrett released one

novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most novelettes and short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) ...

and six short stories with ''Young Skins'' in 2013. He released an additional eight short stories with ''Homesickness'' in 2022. Barrett received multiple awards for ''Young Skins''. These included the

Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award __NOTOC__ The Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award—named in honour of Frank O'Connor, who devoted much of his work to the form—was an international literary award presented for the best short story collection. It was presented betwe ...

and the

Rooney Prize for Irish Literature The Rooney Prize for Irish Literature was created in 1976 by the Irish American businessman Dan Rooney, owner and chairman of the NFL Pittsburgh Steelers franchise and former US Ambassador to Ireland. The prize is administered by the Oscar Wilde ...

in 2014. For adaptations of his short stories, two of his works were made into plays for the New Theatre, Dublin, in 2017 while '' Calm with Horses'' debuted at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...

in 2019. Barrett's first novel, ''Wild Houses'', was longlisted for the

2024 Booker Prize The 2024 Booker Prize is a literary award worth £50,000 given for the best English-language novel published between 1 October 2023 and 30 September 2024 in either the United Kingdom or Ireland. The winner, Samantha Harvey (author), Samantha Ha ...

Early life and education

After Barrett's 1982 birth in

Fort McMurray Fort McMurray ( ) is an urban service area in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo in Alberta, Canada. It is located in northeast Alberta, in the middle of the Athabasca oil sands, surrounded by boreal forest. It has played a significa ...

, Canada, he and his family moved to

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

. Upon leaving Canada for

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

at the age of four, Barrett spent his childhood in Knockmore, between Ballina and

Foxford Foxford () is a town 16 km south of Ballina, County Mayo, Ballina in County Mayo, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It stands on the N26 road, N26 roads in Ireland, national primary route from Swinford to Ballina and has Foxford railway station ...

County Mayo County Mayo (; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, it is named after the village of Mayo, County Mayo, Mayo, now ge ...

, with his four siblings and his parents. He was on

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

teams as an

adolescent Adolescence () is a transitional stage of human physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated w ...

in Ballina. Barrett studied at

University College, Dublin University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest ...

(UCD), and was awarded a BA degree in English, 2003; MA in Creative Writing, 2009; MFA in Creative Writing 2015.

Career

Barrett started his literary career with

comic books A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

during his childhood before he moved on to poetry and books as an adult. For his earlier works, Barrett "spent 10 years not finishing anything". One of the short stories that Barrett did not finish was titled "Ontario". In between his college studies, Barrett was hired by

Vodafone Vodafone Group Public Limited Company () is a British Multinational company, multinational telecommunications company. Its registered office and global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It predominantly operates Service (economic ...

as a

customer representative A customer representative is an individual who has authority to represent a community that intends to purchase a product. The term is most often applied to a representative of a company, or proxy, who works closely with a producer or developer to c ...

, from 2003 to 2008. Barrett's first published short story, "Let's Go Kill Ourselves", appeared in the Winter 2009–10 issue of ''

'' literary magazine. During the following years he worked on material that would later feature in ''Young Skins'', a

cycle Cycle, cycles, or cyclic may refer to: Anthropology and social sciences * Cyclic history, a theory of history * Cyclical theory, a theory of American political history associated with Arthur Schlesinger, Sr. * Social cycle, various cycles in ...

of seven stories set in the fictional town of Glanbeigh. "Calm With Horses", the fifth story in the collection, is written in

form. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Barrett completed two books. In 2022, he released ''Homesickness'', which consisted of eight new stories. Of these, seven were set in

and one, ''The Low, Shimmering Black Drone,'' in

. Between 2014 and 2018, director Nick Rowland worked on adapting ''Calm with Horses'' into a film of the same name. In 2019, '' Calm with Horses'' debuted at the

and starred

Cosmo Jarvis Harrison Cosmo Krikoryan-Jarvis (born ), known as Cosmo Jarvis, is an English actor and former singer-songwriter. He has starred in the films '' Lady Macbeth'' (2016), '' Calm with Horses'' (2019), ''Persuasion'' (2022), and ''Warfare'' (2025). ...

and

Barry Keoghan Barry Keoghan ( ; born 18 October 1992) is an Irish actor. His accolades include a BAFTA Award, along with nominations for an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards. In 2020, he was listed at number 27 on ''The Irish Times'' list of Ireland ...

in leading roles. ''Bait'' and ''The Clancy Kid'', both of which were published in ''Young Skins'', were made into plays for New Theatre, Dublin in 2017. Barrett's debut novel, ''Wild Houses'', was published in January 2024. It was longlisted for the

. It was also nominated for the

Trillium Book Award, English The following is a list of winners and nominees in English-language categories for the Trillium Book Award, a Canadian literary award presented by Ontario Creates to honour books published by writers resident in the province of Ontario Ontari ...

category.

Writing process and themes

Barrett said he would "look for one tiny detail and expand upon it". He also focuses on the people instead of the events to make his works. Some of his inspirations include

Flannery O'Connor Mary Flannery O'Connor (March 25, 1925August 3, 1964) was an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist. She wrote two novels and 31 short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries. O'Connor was a Southern writer who of ...

and

Denis Johnson Denis Hale Johnson (July 1, 1949 – May 24, 2017) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and poet. He is perhaps best known for his debut short story collection, ''Jesus' Son (short story collection), Jesus' Son'' (1992). His most succes ...

. With ''Let's Go Kill Ourselves'', Barrett created Dunvale, Ireland, for his short story. Barrett had ''Young Skins'' occur in a made-up location called Glanbeigh, Ireland. With ''Homesickness'', Barrett continued to use locations in Ireland, while also using Canada for one of his short stories. Some of the topics that Barrett wrote about were about a missing child with ''The Clancy Kid''. With ''A Shooting in Rathreedane'', Barrett wrote about a member of the Garda who investigates a shooting.

Awards and personal life

During the 2010s, the

Arts Council An arts council is a government or private non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the arts; mainly by funding local artists, awarding prizes, and organizing arts events. They often operate at arms-length from the government to prevent pol ...

gave Barrett a bursary three times. At the

Irish Book Awards The Irish Book Awards are Irish literary awards given annually to books and authors in various categories. It is the only literary award supported by all-Irish bookstores. The primary sponsor is An Post, the state owned postal service in Ireland ...

in 2013, Barrett was nominated for the Writing.ie Short Story of the Year award with ''Bait'' and the ''Sunday Independent'' Newcomer of the Year award with ''Young Skins''. For ''Young Skins'', Barrett received the 2014

. Additional awards that Barrett won in 2014 with ''Young Skins'' were the

and the

Guardian First Book Award The Guardian First Book Award was a literary award presented by ''The Guardian'' newspaper. It annually recognised one book by a new writer. It was established in 1999, replacing the Guardian Fiction Award or Guardian Fiction Prize that the newspa ...

In 2015, the

National Book Foundation The National Book Foundation (NBF) is an American nonprofit organization established with the goal "to raise the cultural appreciation of great writing in America." Established in 1989 by National Book Awards, Inc.,Edwin McDowell. "Book Notes: ...

selected him as one of their 5 Under 35. In 2024 Barrett was shortlisted for the

Nero book awards The Nero Book Awards are British literary awards, inaugurated in 2023. They are run by coffeehouse chain Caffè Nero in partnership with the Booksellers' Association, Brunel University London Brunel University of London (BUL) is a Publi ...

for ''Wild Houses.'' ''Wild Houses'' was shortlisted for the

Trillium Book Award The Trillium Book Award ( or ''Prix Trillium'') is an annual literary award presented to writers in Ontario, Canada. It is administered by Ontario Creates, a Crown agency (Ontario), Crown agency of the Government of Ontario, which is overseen by ...

for English Prose in 2025.Cassandra Drudi
"Canisia Lubrin, Maurice Vellekoop among writers shortlisted for 2025 Trillium Book Awards"
''

Quill & Quire ''Quill & Quire'' is a Canadian magazine about the book and publishing industry. The magazine was launched in 1935 and has an average circulation of 5,000 copies per issue, with a publisher-claimed readership of 25,000. ''Quill & Quire'' reviews ...

'', May 6, 2025. Barrett is married and has two children.

Biblio

* ''Young Skins'' (2013) * ''Homesickness'' (2022) * ''Wild Houses'' (2024)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barrett, Colin 1982 births 21st-century Canadian short story writers 21st-century Irish short story writers Canadian male short story writers Irish male short story writers Irish people of Canadian descent Living people 21st-century Canadian novelists 21st-century Irish novelists Canadian male novelists Irish male novelists