Keith Ridgway (born 2 October 1965) is an Irish novelist and short story writer. He has won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the Prix Femina Etranger, the Prix du Premier Roman Etranger, the O. Henry Award, and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.

Life

Ridgway was born in 1965 in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

. He has lived in London and Dublin and currently lives in south London. He has described himself as a queer, Irish, male writer and has said he is "a Dubliner for life".

Career

Ridgway's novella, ''Horses'', was included in volume 13 of the ''Faber First Fictions'' series in 1997. In 1998, Ridgway's

debut novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to pu ...

, ''The Long Falling'', was published by Faber & Faber, London. Set in rural Ireland and Dublin, it tells of a woman in an abusive relationship and of her gay son who moves to Dublin. The French translation, ''Mauvaise Pente'', was published in 2001. It won the

Prix Femina The Prix Femina is a French List of literary awards, literary prize awarded each year by an exclusively female jury. The prize, which was established in 1904, is awarded to French-language works written in prose or Verse (poetry), verse by male ...

Étranger and the Prix du Premier Roman Etranger. It was adapted into a film, '' Où va la nuit'', by French director Martin Provost in 2011. A collection of short fiction, ''Standard Time'', was published by Faber & Faber in 2001. It was translated into French, German, and Dutch and won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. Ridgway's second novel, ''The Parts'', was published by Faber & Faber in 2003. Set in a contemporary, cosmopolitan Dublin, particularly the "underbelly" of the city, it tells the interconnecting stories of six main characters. His next novel, ''Animals'', a story of mental breakdown set in London, was published by 4th Estate, London, in 2006. Ridgway's short story, 'Goo Book', was published in the April 11, 2011, issue of

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

magazine. In the same year, his short story, 'Rothko Eggs', was published in Zoetrope: All Story. It won the O. Henry Award in 2012 and was anthologized in the PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories that year. Both these stories later became part of Ridgway's third novel, ''Hawthorn & Child'', published by Granta Books in 2012. An "out of sync" detective story without a resolution, the novel features two London detectives and also tells the stories of several characters loosely associated with the case they are investigating. After an eight year gap, Ridgway's next novel, '' A Shock'', was published by Picador in June 2021. Set in a hot summer in south London, once again, the novel features multiple interconnecting characters and stories. It was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize and it won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Ridgway's novels have been translated into several languages and have been published in France, Italy, and Germany.

Awards

Honours

* 2001 Prix du Premier Roman Etranger * 2012 O. Henry Award

Literary awards

Bibliography

* ''Horses'' in ''First Fictions: Introduction 13'', Faber & Faber, 1997. . Republished as a standalone volume, ''Horses'', Faber & Faber, 2003. * ''The Long Falling'', Faber & Faber, 1998. * ''Standard Time'', Faber & Faber, 2001. * ''The Parts'', Faber & Faber, 2003. * ''Animals'', 4th Estate, 2006. * ''Hawthorn & Child'', Granta, 2012. * '' A Shock'', Picador, 2021.

References

External links

Keith Ridgway on "Goo Book" in The New Yorker Blog: Book Bench

Keith Ridgway at Pan Macmillan

Keith Ridgway at Faber Academy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ridgway, Keith 1965 births Living people Irish gay writers Irish expatriates in the United Kingdom Irish male short story writers Irish male novelists Writers from Dublin (city) Prix Femina Étranger winners 21st-century Irish male writers Irish LGBTQ novelists 21st-century Irish short story writers 21st-century Irish novelists