Lisa McInerney

Lisa McInerney is an Irish novelist born in Galway in 1981. Before her debut novel she was widely known for her blog Arse End of Ireland, a comedic account of life on a Galway housing estate. She studied in Galway and worked as a cleaner before becoming a full-time writer. The Glorious Heresies (2015, John Murray) is her debut novel, set in the post-crash Cork underworld and following a cast of interconnected characters whose lives spiral around a single crime. Written in a voice of dark comedic brilliance and sharp social observation, it won the Desmond Elliott Prize and the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2016. Its sequel The Blood Miracles (2017) won the RSL Encore Award. McInerney's fiction is celebrated for its black humour, its vivid portrayal of working-class Irish life, and its refusal of sentimentality. She is one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary Irish fiction.