Big Girl Small Town shortlisted for the Christopher Ewart-Biggs memorial prize

Big Girl Small Town has been shortlisted for the Christopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize.

It’s a huge honour to have my debut shortlisted for this prize, which was set up in memory of the British ambassador to Ireland, Christopher Ewart-Biggs, who was murdered by the IRA in 1976. The prize aims to recognise work that promotes peace and reconciliation in Ireland, a greater understanding between the peoples of Britain and Ireland, and a closer co-operation between the partners of the European community.

Speaking for the Judges, Professor Roy Foster said:

“At this time, the importance of coming to terms with a violent past, and exploring routes to mutual understanding  through negotiation and compromise, is more urgently needed than ever. The short-list for the 2022 Prize reflects this.

“It includes a tough and salty novel charting everyday life and survival in a society traumatized by violent death and disappearance; a fascinating memoir by an unsung hero of the negotiations which led to the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985, a vital landmark in the peace process; a powerful and formally audacious book of poetry exploring the psychological fall-out after a paramilitary murder; and an in-depth  analysis of the  channels of communication set up between the British government and the republican movement.

“All these books are written  with sharp insight and considerable literary distinction, and shine new light into dark corners of  the Northern Irish experience.”

The other shortlisted works are:

David Goodall, edited by Frank Sheridan, The Making of the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985: a memoir (National University of Ireland)

Gail McConnell, The Sun Is Open  (Penned in the Margins)

Niall Ó Dochartaigh, Deniable Contact: Back-Channel Negotiation in Northern Ireland (Oxford University Press)