Kevin Barry (born 1 December 1969) is an Irish writer. He is the author of three collections of short stories and four novels. '' City of Bohane'' (2011) was the winner of the 2013

International Dublin Literary Award The International Dublin Literary Award (), established as the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 1996, is presented each year for a novel written or translated into English. It promotes excellence in world literature and is solely ...

, the world's most valuable annual literary fiction prize for books published in English. ''Beatlebone'' (2015) won the 2015

Goldsmiths Prize The Goldsmiths Prize is a British literary award, founded in 2013 by Goldsmiths, University of London, in association with the ''New Statesman.'' It is awarded annually to a British or Irish piece of fiction that "breaks the mould or extends the ...

and his 2019 novel '' Night Boat to Tangier'' was longlisted for the 2019 Booker Prize. Barry is also an editor of ''Winter Papers'', an arts and culture annual.

Biography

Born in

Limerick Limerick ( ; ) is a city in western Ireland, in County Limerick. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is in the Mid-West Region, Ireland, Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. W ...

, Barry spent much of his youth travelling, living in 17 addresses by the time he was 36. He lived variously in Cork, Santa Barbara,

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, and

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

before settling in

Sligo Sligo ( ; , meaning 'abounding in shells') is a coastal seaport and the county town of County Sligo, Ireland, within the western province of Connacht. With a population of 20,608 in 2022, it is the county's largest urban centre (constituting 2 ...

, purchasing and renovating a run-down

Royal Irish Constabulary The Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC, ; simply called the Irish Constabulary 1836–67) was the police force in Ireland from 1822 until 1922, when all of the island was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom. A sep ...

barracks. His decision to settle down was driven primarily by the increasing difficulty in moving large quantities of books from house to house. In Cork Barry worked as a freelance journalist, contributing a regular column to the

Irish Examiner The ''Irish Examiner'', formerly ''The Cork Examiner'' and then ''The Examiner'', is an Republic of Ireland, Irish national daily newspaper which primarily circulates in the Munster region surrounding its base in Cork (city), Cork, though it is ...

. Keen to become a writer, he purchased a caravan and parked it in a field in West Cork, spending the next six months writing what he described as a "terrible novel". Barry has described himself as "a raving egomaniac", one of those "monstrous creatures who are composed 99 percent of sheer, unadulterated ego" and "hugely insecure and desperate to be loved and I want my reader to adore me, to a disturbing, stalkerish degree." He is highly ambitious, saying: "I won't be happy until I'm up there, receiving the

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

". He confessed to "haunting bookshops and hiding" to "spy on the short fiction section and see if anyone's tempted by my sweet bait" and has also placed copies of his own work in front of books by other "upcoming" authors. In 2007 he won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature for his short story collection ''There Are Little Kingdoms'' (2007). In 2011 he released his debut novel '' City of Bohane'', which was followed in 2012 by the short story collection '' Dark Lies the Island''. Barry won the

for his novel ''City of Bohane'' in 2013. When ''City of Bohane'' was shortlisted for the award in April 2013, Barry said: "Anything that keeps a book in the spotlight and keeps people talking about books is good. ..And a prize with money attached to it has a lot of prestige." He received €100,000 for winning the award. The prize jury included Salim Bachi, Krista Kaer, Patrick McCabe, Kamila Shamsie, Clive Sinclair and Eugene R. Sullivan.

Lord Mayor of Dublin The Lord Mayor of Dublin () is the honorary title of the chairperson ( ) of Dublin City Council which is the local government body for the city of Dublin, the capital of Ireland. The incumbent, since December 2024, is Fine Gael councillor Emma ...

Naoise Ó Muirí said he was "thrilled" that someone of "such immense talent houldtake home this year's award". Ó Muirí also said the characters were "flamboyant and malevolent, speaking in a vernacular like no other." In November, 2015 ''Beatlebone'' won the £10,000

that aims to reward British and Irish fiction that breaks the mould or extends the possibilities of the novel form.Gatti, Tom (11 November 2015
''Kevin Barry wins the Goldsmiths Prize 2015 for his novel Beatlebone''

New Statesman ''The New Statesman'' (known from 1931 to 1964 as the ''New Statesman and Nation'') is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first c ...

'' The Gazette'' described him as: "If

Roddy Doyle Roderick Doyle (born 8 May 1958) is an Irish novelist, dramatist and screenwriter. He is the author of eleven novels for adults, eight books for children, seven plays and screenplays, and dozens of short stories. Several of his books have been ...

and

Nick Cave Nicholas Edward Cave (born 22 September 1957) is an Australian musician, writer, and actor who fronts the rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Known for his baritone voice, Cave's music is characterised by emotional intensity, a wide variety ...

could procreate, the result would be something like Kevin Barry." Barry was the Ireland Fund Artist-in-Residence in the Celtic Studies Department of University of St. Michael's College at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

in October 2010.

Awards and honours

Literary awards

Honours

* 2020: Elected member of Aosdána

Bibliography

Novels

* '' City of Bohane'' (2011) * ''Beatlebone'' (2015) * '' Night Boat to Tangier'' (2019) * ''The Heart in Winter'' (2024)

Plays

* ''The Cave'' (2025)

Short story collections

* ''There Are Little Kingdoms'' (2007) * '' Dark Lies the Island'' (2012) * ''That Old Country Music'' (2020)

Short stories

References

External links

Book review of ''There Are Little Kingdoms''

review of ''Dark Lies the Island''
New York Journal of Books
Short biography
from the Berlin International Literature Festival {{DEFAULTSORT:Barry, Kevin 1969 births Living people 21st-century Irish novelists 21st-century Irish male writers 21st-century Irish short story writers Irish male novelists Irish male short story writers Writers from Limerick (city) The New Yorker people Goldsmiths Prize winners