Congratulations to Colin Barrett

Congratulations to Colin Barrett on winning the 2014 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award for his debut collection ‘Young Skins’. An amazing and well deserved achievement. Colin and I studied for our Masters in Creative Writing at UCD the same year – 2008-9 – and I knew the first time he read some of his work in class that here was a writer destined for great things. It hasn’t taken long. Only 9 months since the publication of ‘Young Skins’ and already his name is well known in the literary world, not just here in Ireland but in the UK and the US. This morning I received in the post some details of the 2014 Cork International Short Story Festival (www.corkshortstory.net) where Colin will be presented with his award – a cool €25,000. Also taking part in the festival in September are, among others, Richard Ford, Salley Vickers and Nuala Ní Chonchúir. If you haven’t already read Colin’s work, go out and buy a copy of ‘Young Skins’. You’re in for a real treat.