Creative Writing alumni Michael wins prestigious novel award

Congratulations to English graduate Michael Magee on winning the John McGahern Prize for a debut book of Irish fiction.

His debut novel Close to Home was chosen from a shortlist by esteemed author Colm Toibin.

Now in its fifth year, the prestigious prize was established at the University of Liverpool’s Institute of Irish Studies to promote new Irish fiction and to celebrate the memory of the late, great John McGahern (1934-2006).

Magee was born in May 1990 in a republican family and grew up on the edge of west Belfast. He attended a Christian Brothers school "sporadically", but went on to study creative writing at LJMU and earn a PhD in creative writing at Queen's University Belfast.

Close to Home has also won the 2023 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, was category winner for debut fiction in the 2023 Nero Book Awards, and was the Waterstones Irish Book of the Year.

The Guardian described it as "a staggeringly humane and tender evocation of class, violence and the challenge of belonging in a world that seems designed to keep you watching from the sidelines.” while Waterstones said that it was "the unanimous choice for Irish Book of the Year by all the booksellers in Ireland, north and south."

Michael will discuss his book with Dr Niall Carson, the Joint Patronage Lecturer in Modern Irish Literature at the Institute on Saturday 5 October at 11.30am.

Dr Sarah Maclennan, programme leader in creative writing at LJMU, said: “I taught Michael Creative Writing and apparently inspired his love of short story specialist and Pulitzer Prize winner Eudora Welty. We had a chat on Twitter a while back about her.”

Two other writing students who are doing amazingly well are Jennifer Delaney who published bestseller ‘Tales of a Monstrous Heart’ and Sean Watkin who has signed a three-book deal with Canelo Crime.