Anne Enright

Ann Enright, major Irish writer and winner of the 2007 Man Booker Prize (the British Commonwealth's most prestigious literary award), will read from her work and respond to questions during the annual McKinney Student Writing Contest Ceremonies on Wednesday, April 18, 2012 at 8:00 p.m. in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Biotech Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public. 

Enright won the Man Booker Prize for The Gathering, which explores the impact of alcoholism and suicide on a large Irish family. After Liam Hegarty drowns himself in the sea, the nine surviving children of the Hegarty family gather in Dublin for the wake, where unpleasant family secrets gradually bubble up to the surface. Though considered a longshot for the Booker Man Prize, the novel was selected unanimously by the panel of judges. The book was also named "Irish Novel of the Year" at the 2008 Irish Book Awards.

Her most recent novel is The Forgotten Waltz, which captures the eroticism of an extramarital affair. One critic wrote: "Ann Enright's exhilarating novel The Forgotten Waltz explores a life-altering affair between two seemingly unremarkable Irish professionals with such exquisite attention, honesty, and wit as to make every sentence throb with life. Don't start this book if you have anything else to do for the rest of the day because it will not get done." Another wrote: "It's so beautifully written that you could read it once just for the dazzle of the prose, then start over for the content." 

Enright's earlier works include a collection of stories, Yesterday's Weather, largely voiced by female narrators about the recent transformation of Ireland; a novel, The Pleasure of Eliza Lynch, about an Irish prostitute; a novel, What Are You Like?, about a pair of twins separated at birth; a novel, The Wig My Father Wore, about a woman stuck in a drab Dublin existence until she is befriended by an angel; and a humorous nonfiction book, Making Babies: Stumbling into Motherhood. She is praised for her eccentric characters, lyrical style, unexpected comic touches, and depictions of family agony. 

She was born in Dublin, studied English and Philosophy at Trinity College, Dublin, and went on to study for an MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia.