Congratulations to Northern Irish writer Deirdre Madden who has been awarded a prestigious Windham-Campbell prize, worth US$175,000! Eight of these awards have been handed out every year since 2013.
(Australia’s own Helen Garner received one in 2016, famously thinking it was a spam email and almost binning the news of her win.)
Madden is one of my favourite writers. In the words of the Windham-Campbell prize committee, she brings to “life the smallest movements of characters’ impulses and thoughts, portraying the intricacies of human lives with compassion and effortless depth”.
Madden’s stories show us how we are both bound and freed by the “unholy wind” of time. Her characters’ lives are intersected by extraordinary events: some political (the Troubles), some economic (the rise and fall of the Celtic Tiger), some personal, all sudden openings that offer the rare opportunity for transformation and even transcendence.
Windham-Campbell Prize announcement
I met her once at a Faber showcase when she was promoting Time Present and Time Past and she was so gracious and lovely. In those days I always handed out business cards to writers I met, never expecting anything to come of it, but a few days later she sent me an email, writing “you have a most impressive blog” — swoon. (And yes, I’ve still got that email.)
Her backlist is relatively small — eight novels at last count (she also writes children’s books) — of which I’ve read five:
📖 Hidden Symptoms (1986)
📖 The Birds of the Innocent Wood (1988)
📖 Remembering Light and Stone (1993)
📖 Nothing Is Black (1994)
📖 One by One in the Darkness (1996)
📖 Authenticity (2002)
📖 Molly Fox’s Birthday (2008)
📖 Time Present and Time Past (2013)
I hope this prize means she might have the means to pen another novel soon and that it might bring her work to the attention of a wider audience.
You can read more about the prize announcement in The Guardian and the Windham-Campbell Prize on the official website.
Reading Matters 
Another writer to add to my list …. and she’s right about your blog.
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Oh, that’s a nice thing to say, Margaret. Thank you 🙏
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She is …
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Thanks, Sue
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So, so delighted for her. Great to see her getting some awards-love!
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Yes, I was so chuffed when I saw the news!
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I’ve never read her, and was only aware of Molly Fox’s Birthday… would that be a good one to start with (I may have a copy somewhere).
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Yea, Molly Fox is a good one. My favourite is One by One in the Darkness… I still occasionally think about that book, it really left an impression.
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I read Molly Fox when it was listed for the Women’s Prize but unfortunately it has completely vanished from my memory!
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It’s vanished from mine, too, but it was 15 years ago and I have read a LOT of books since!
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Another Irish writer I’m completely unfamiliar with. What would you recommend I try first?
The Windham-Campbell is such an amazing amount of money. The news must come out of the blue for most recipients!
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I think the popular one is Molly Fox but my personal fave (of the ones I have read) is One by One in the Darkness because it’s such a profound look at how a place and its politics shapes your outlook on life.
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Oh how great Kimbofo … another author I need to follow up.
BTW I think Ali Cobby Eckermann also won this award and couldn’t believe it. Such a game changer for many writers I think.
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Oh yes, forgot about that. She won in 2017 for her contributions to poetry.
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Yes!
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