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Emma Donoghue

© Una Roulston 2021. (Hi-Res Download)

Emma Donoghue

Born in Dublin, Ireland, in October 1969, I am the youngest of eight children of Frances and Denis Donoghue (the literary critic). I attended Catholic convent schools in Dublin, apart from one eye-opening year in New York at the age of ten. In 1990 I earned a first-class honours BA in English and French from University College Dublin (unfortunately, without learning to actually speak French). I moved to England, and in 1997 received my PhD (on the concept of friendship between men and women in eighteenth-century English fiction) from the University of Cambridge. From the age of 23, I have earned my living as a writer, and have been lucky enough to never have an ‘honest job’ since I was sacked after a single summer month as a chambermaid. After years of commuting between England, Ireland, and Canada, in 1998 I settled in London, Ontario, where I live with Chris Roulston and our son Finn and daughter Una.

Awards

The audiobooks of Learned by Heart, The Pull of the Stars, Akin, and Room won Audiofile Earphones Awards.

Room, the film directed by Lenny Abrahamson with screenplay by Emma Donoghue, won the Best Actress Academy Award and Golden Globe Best Dramatic Actress (for Brie Larson), the Canadian Screen Award for Best Film, the Irish Film and Television Academy Award for Best Film, the Grolsch People's Choice Award at Toronto International Film Festival, the Hamptons International Film Festival Audience Award for Narrative Feature, the Audience Poll at Warsaw Film Festival, the Cinemex Competencia Award at Los Cabos International Film Festival, the Audience Award at New Orleans Film Fest, the Audience Award at Aspen FilmFest, the Audience Award for Best Narrative (tied with Atom Egoyan's Remember) at Calgary International Film Festival, the Audience Award at Mill Valley Film Festival, Best Canadian Film at Vancouver International Film Festival, the British Independent Film Award for Best International Film, and an American Film Institute top ten award.

Emma Donoghue's script for Room won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, the Irish Film and Television Academy Award for Best Screenplay, the Evening Standard Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and the Independent Spirit Award for First Screenplay, as well as the Eda Award for Best Woman Screenwriter, the Austin Film Critics Association Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, the Indiana Film Journalists Association Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, the San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, the Online Film & Television Association Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, the Nevada Film Critics Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (tied with Drew Goddard for The Martian), the Southeastern Film Critics Association Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, the Eda Award for Best Woman Screenwriter, the Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards for Best Canadian Film and Best Screenplay in a Canadian Film, and the Washington DC Area Film Critics Award for Best Screenplay.

Emma Donoghue won the 2016 AWB Vincent American Ireland Funds Literary Award, and the 2011 National Lesbian and Gay Federation (Ireland) Person of the Year Award.

Astray (the Hachette audiobook) won the 2013 Audie Award for a Multi-Voice Audiobook.

Room won the 2010 Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year, the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the 2011 Commonwealth Prize for Fiction (Canada & Carribbean), W. H. Smith Paperback of the Year (Galaxy National Book Awards), the Forest of Reading Evergreen Award, two Libris Awards from the Canadian Booksellers’ Association (Fiction Book and Author of the Year, and two awards from the American Library Association (Indie Choice Award for Adult Fiction and an Alex Award for an adult book with special appeal to teen readers). Hachette's multi-voice audiobook of Room won an Audiofile Earphones Award and the 2011 Audie Award for a Multi-Voice Audiobook.

Inseparable: Desire Between Women in Literature won the 2011 Stonewall Book Awards – Israel Fishman Non-Fiction Award (from the American Library Association).

The Sealed Letter was joint winner of the 2009 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction.

Landing won the 2008 Golden Crown Literary Award (Lesbian Dramatic General Fiction).

Slammerkin won the 2002 Ferro-Grumley Award for Lesbian Fiction.

Hood won the 1997 American Library Association’s Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Book Award (now known as the Stonewall Book Award).

Shortlisted

Learned by Heart was a finalist for the Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize for best Canadian fiction.

The Wonder, the feature film starring Florence Pugh adapted from her novel by Emma Donoghue, Sebastián Lelio, and Alice Birch, was shortlisted for a Bafta (Outstanding British Film), a Women Film Critics Circle award for Best Screenplay, an EDA Award (Alliance of Women Film Journalists) for Best Adapted Screenplay, the Girls on Film Best Feature Film, six London Film Critics' Circle awards including Best Screenplay and British/Irish Film of the Year, and twelve British Independent Film Awards including Best Screenplay and Best British Independent Film. It was included in the National Board of Review Top Ten Independent Films.

The Pull of the Stars was a finalist for the Easons Irish Novel of the Year, the Trillium Book Award, the Stonewall Book Award Barbara Gittings Literature Award, and a Goodreads Choice Award for historical fiction.

Room, Donoghue's stage adaptation of her novel with songs by Cora Bissett and Kathryn Joseph, was one of three finalists for the Carol Bolt Award for best new Canadian play.

Akin was shortlisted for the Guardian's Not the Booker Prize. 

The Wonder was shortlisted for the 2016 Scotiabank Giller Award for best Canadian fiction, the Bord Gáis Energy Eason Novel of the Year, and the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year, as well as a Medici Award for book-club favourite titles and a Shirley Jackson Award for the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic.

Donoghue's screenplay for Room was nominated for an Academy Award (Best Adapted Screenplay), a Golden Globe (Drama Screenplay), a Bafta, a USC Scripter Award, a St. Louis Film Critics Association Award, a Seattle Film Critics Award, a San Francisco Film Critics Circle Award, a Phoenix Film Critics Society Award, a North Carolina Film Critics Association Award, a Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award, a Houston Film Critics Society Award, a Georgia FIlm Ctitics Association Award, a Dorian Award from the Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics, an Awards Circuit Community Award, an Eda Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, a Chlotrudis Award, a Chicago Film Critics Association Award, a Central Ohio Film Critics Association Award, a Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award, a Denver Film Critics Society Award, a Florida Film Critics Circle Award, an Online Film Critics Society Award, two London Critics Circle Awards (Screenwriter and Breakthrough British/Irish Filmmaker), a Critics Choice Award, a Satellite Award and a Zebbie.

Frog Music was one of the Honor Books in Literature chosen in the Stonewall Book Awards 2015, and was a finalist in the Bisexual Book Award for Fiction.

Astray was shortlisted for the 2012 Eason Irish Novel of the Year, as well as the Edge Hill Short Story Prize, and 'The Hunt', one of its stories, was shortlisted for the 2012 Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award.

Room was shortlisted for the 2010 Man Booker Prize, the Orange Prize for Fiction, the Trillium English Book Award, and International Author of the Year (Galaxy National Book Awards).

Inseparable was shortlisted for the 2011 Lambda Literary Award for LGBT Non-Fiction.

Life Mask was shortlisted for the 2005 Ferro-Grumley Award for Lesbian Fiction and the Lambda Award for Lesbian Fiction. 

The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits was shortlisted for the 2003 Stonewall Book Award.

Slammerkin was shortlisted for the 2001 Irish Times Irish Fiction Prize.

The Mammoth Book of Lesbian Short Stories [reissued 2013 as Love Alters] was shortlisted for the 2000 Lambda Award for Lesbian Anthology.

Poems Between Women [UK title What Sappho Would Have Said] was shortlisted for the 1999 Lambda Award for Lesbian Anthology.

Kissing the Witch was shortlisted for the 1997 James L. Tiptree Award.

Passions Between Women was shortlisted for the 1997 Lambda Award for Lesbian Non-Fiction.

Stir-fry was shortlisted for the 1996 Lambda Award for Lesbian Fiction.

I Know My Own Heart was shortlisted for the 1994 Stewart Parker Award for Best Irish Debut Play.

Longlisted

The Wonder was longlisted for three Baftas, including Adapted Screenplay.

The Pull of the Stars was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize for Canadian fiction.

Astray was longlisted for the Story Prize, the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, and the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction.

The Wonder and Room were longlisted for the 2012 International Impac Dublin Literary Award.

The Sealed Letter was longlisted for the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction and the Scotiabank Giller Prize.

Touchy Subjects was longlisted for the 2006 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award.