Mike McCormack | |
|---|---|
.jpg) McCormack at the 2017 Gothenburg Book Fair | |
| Born | 1965 (age 59–60) London, England |
| Occupation | Novelist, short story writer |
| Alma mater | University College Galway (UCG) |
| Notable works | Notes from a Coma (2005) Solar Bones (2016) |
| Notable awards | Rooney Prize for Irish Literature (1996) Goldsmiths Prize (2016) International Dublin Literary Award (2018) |
Mike McCormack (born 1965) is anIrish novelist and short-story writer. He has published two collections of short stories,Getting It In the Head andForensic Songs, and four novels:Crowe's Requiem,Notes from a Coma,Solar Bones, andThis Plague of Souls. He has won theRooney Prize for Irish Literature, theGoldsmiths Prize, and theInternational Dublin Literary Award. He was described as "a disgracefully neglected writer"[1][2] early in his career, but the success of some of his later works and his tenure as a writing educator have brought him wide recognition today.[3]
McCormack was born inLondon.[4] He grew up on a farm inLouisburgh, County Mayo, and studied English and philosophy at theUniversity of Galway.[5][3]
He lives in Galway with his wife Maeve, where he works as a lecturer and director of theUniversity of Galway's MA in Creative Writing.[6][2][3]
McCormack's first short story collection,Getting It in the Head, was published in 1996. It was awarded theRooney Prize for Irish Literature, awarded to Irish writers under the age of 40.[7] In 1998, the collection was voted aNew York Times Notable Book of the Year.[8] A story from the collection, "The Terms", was adapted into a short film directed by Johnny O'Reilly released in 2000. It won six awards, including Best Short Film at thePalm Springs International Festival of Short Films, theWoodstock Film Festival, and theChlotrudis Awards.[9] The same story was adapted as a short film a second time in 2010, with director Jason LaMotte. It won awards at theTribeca Festival and theAction On Film International Film Festival.[10]
McCormack's first novel,Crowe's Requiem, was published in 1998. In it, John Crowe, who suffers from the ageing diseaseprogeria, escapes from his isolated rural childhood to the city, where he enters into a tumultuous relationship with a fellow student, which leads to him taking part in a risky medical trial.[11]
McCormack's second novel,Notes from a Coma (2006), is set in a floating prison, where the prisoners are kept in maintained comas. It was shortlisted for the Irish Book of the Year Award.[8] In 2010,John Waters inThe Irish Times described it as "the greatest Irish novel of the decade just ended".[1] It took McCormack seven years to write the book.[5] It is currently on the Senior Cycle reading list for Leaving Certificate English.
In May 2016, Dublin publisherTramp Press published McCormack's third novelSolar Bones. Set in rural Ireland, it follows the thoughts of a civil engineer, Marcus, and is unusual in being written as a single long sentence.[12] It was named Novel of the Year and An Post Irish Book of the Year by theIrish Book Awards.[13][14] It went on to win the 2018Goldsmiths Prize.[15] In June 2018, the novel won theInternational Dublin Literary Award of€100,000, the richest literary prize in the world for a single novel published in English.[12]
McCormack's fourth novel,This Plague of Souls, was published in 2023. It describes a man returning to rural Ireland after a period in prison, to find his family house mysteriously empty.[16][17]
MacCormack was elected toAosdána in 2018.[18] In 2019, he was inducted into the Hennessy Literary Awards Hall of Fame.[8]
Sheila Pratschke, Chair of the Arts Council said, "Mike has a long relationship with the Arts Council, through our residency programmes, bursary awards and, most recently, through his appointment to Aosdána, and we have known for many years that he is a writer of astonishing talent."
