Caoilinn Hughes

Caoilinn Hughes is an Irish writer whose second novel, The Wild Laughter (2020) won the Royal Society of Literature’s Encore Award 2021, was longlisted for the 2021 Swansea University International Dylan Thomas Prize and was shortlisted for three other awards. Her first novel, Orchid & the Wasp (2018), won the Collyer Bristow Prize 2019, was longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award, and shortlisted for four other awards. Her poetry book, Gathering Evidence (2014) won the Irish Times Shine/Strong Award. Her short stories have been awarded the Moth Short Story Prize, the Irish Book Awards’ Story of the Year, and an O. Henry Prize. She was recently Oscar Wilde Writer Fellow at Trinity College Dublin and a Cullman Center Fellow at New York Public Library. Her latest novel The Alternatives was published by Oneworld in May 2024. It was a a New York Times Editor’s Choice, a Book of the Year in the Irish Times, Irish Independent and Good Housekeeping and was shortlisted for the Last Word Listeners’ Choice Award in the 2024 An Post Irish Book Awards.