Novelist Kevin Power is awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature 2009

Posted on: 08 October 2009

The Rooney Prize for Irish Literature for 2009  has been awarded to  writer Kevin Power, in recognition of his achievement and outstanding promise as a  novelist. The announcement was made by the Provost at a reception in Trinity College Dublin on October 8th last  with the US Ambassador to Ireland, Dr Daniel M Rooney in attendance. The Rooney Prize which was first presented in 1976, is awarded every year through the generosity of Dr Rooney of the Pittsburgh Steelers in the USA and his wife, Patricia.

The award winning writer,  Kevin Power’s  first novel ‘Bad Day in Blackrock’ was published by the Lilliput Press, Dublin in 2008. It is the story of the genesis and aftermath of the death of a young student.  Kevin is currently doing a PhD in Modern American Literature in UCD. His short story ‘American Girl’  which was  published in  New Irish Writing in January 2008 was also awarded the  Hennessy X.O Emerging Fiction Award in April 2009.
Previous winners of the Rooney Prize include Bernard Farrell, Neil Jordan, Frank McGuinness, Deirdre Madden and Anne Enright.
The selection committee this year comprised:
Terence Brown,  Chair of the selection committee, critic and author (Professor of Anglo-Irish literature, TCD);
Dr Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, novelist and dramatist (National Library of Ireland)
Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, poet (Professor, School of English, TCD)
Carlo Gébler, novelist and dramatist;
Dr Riana O’Dwyer critic and editor (Department of English, National University of Ireland at Galway)
Dr Eve Patten, critic and author (Senior Lecturer,  School of English,TCD)

Commenting on the significance of  Kevin Power’s literary work, Carlo Gébler said that in his first novel Kevin Power created  “a world like ours yet entirely the author’s own through which we gain an improved understanding of our own. And…he’s done it with supreme skill”.

The Rooney Prize is awarded annually to a published Irish writer under forty  whose work the selection committee considers shows outstanding promise. The prize is administered by the Oscar Wilde Centre for Irish Writing, School of English, Trinity College Dublin.