Anna Fitzgerald wins John McGahern Prize for Debut Irish Fiction

Author Anna Fitzgerald has won the John McGahern Book Prize for her debut novel Girl in the Making.

Fitzgerald was selected by writer Colm Tóibín for the award for the best debut novel or short story collection by an Irish writer in Ireland published in 2024.

Other shortlisted titles included Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon, Hagstone by Sinéad Gleeson and The Coast Road by Alan Murrin. All four books are listed by Hot Press in The Best Books Of 2024.

Girl in the Making follows the life of Jean Kennedy as she grows up in suburban Dublin with her parents and younger siblings. The timeline runs from 1966 to 1981.

"Girl in the Making is written in the pitch-perfect voice of a girl who is a born noticer," said Tóibín of the novel.

"This is suburban Dublin in the 1970s and 1980s, captured in careful, accurate detail....This is a novel of concealment and shocking revelation. In working so closely with intimate emotions and domestic traumas, Fitzgerald has managed to create an unforgettable heroine and a dark picture of the world around her."

Professor Pete Shirlow, director of Liverpool’s Institute of Irish Studies, praised Girl in the Making as "exactly the sort of book we hoped we could promote when originally thinking about the establishment" of the John McGahern Book Prize

"Here we have a bold new voice who we feel ought to have gained greater attention than has hitherto been the case," Shirlow said.

"We very much hope that the prize will promote the reading of her work among a wider audience and encourage Anna to continue in her efforts at fiction writing.”

Now in its sixth year, the John McGahern Book Prize includes an award of £5,000 (€5,783) and will be presented to Fitzgerald at the Liverpool Literary Festival on October 19.